THE SILENT RIGHT

Deafness

 a gateway to

a dark closet.

A professor lectures

 but I listen to sign

To come into reality.

I am Deaf

 BUT I embrace

the world of knowledge

 through signs.

Signs unite Chaucer and Marx

 like brothers of a hearing world–

but I use them as rich music to

 get me through school.

My interpreter, like a faithful Saint

 Bernard on a cold night, tries to save me

from the painful noise in the world.

She ain’t sexy but

 smart enough to sign

everything the prof says.