Safe Speech


We shut the door. No windows. Soundsoaking walls.
No mobiles. Freshly-swept. And only those
cleared to the highest level know where we are.

Now we can talk, at last. What shall we say?
Who’s bribing whom? Or who’s building a Bomb?
Or which mad bunch of terrorists is plotting how

to maim or slaughter in the name of God?
Or shall we sit in silence, while we wait -
like lovers when the world stops, just for them -

for words to realise they’ve been uncaged
since there’s only you and me to fear, or snare?
But with nowhere to fly in this free air.

Tom Vaughan

If you have any comments on this poem,  Tom Vaughan  would be pleased to hear from you.