Seven Billion Voices

There are seven billion voices 

Only one of them is mine 

Their voices seemed louder, 

and there were so many 

It was overpowering 

My voice seemed small, 

insignificant in comparison 

It can seem like 

no one is listening, 

no one cares 

What good could come 

from my lone voice? 

Perhaps I should be quiet, 

even fall silent, 

and let others 

control the discussion 

But if I listen closely, 

the narrative is not as consistent 

as they would like me to believe 

I hear other voices 

that sound more like mine 

They only seemed faint 

because they were further away, 

drowned out by the crowd’s 

boisterous chants of 

“it has to be this way” 

With my ears tuned 

to this frequency, 

these divergent voices 

have strength and volume, 

they are far from quiet 

A collection of voices 

can only be created 

one by one

The narrative can change 

The chorus is singing 

from a book of blank pages 

Pages that only together, 

over time, will we fill 

My heart is not weak 

My brain, fully functioning 

My voice, no less important 

There are seven billion voices 

​

And one of them 

is mine 

2 Dec 2019