If you listen close
The block tells the truth with its teeth

Streetlights sip rain
And squint through smoky glass
While sirens sew
Their sermons as they pass

A coffee spoon keeps time
Like snare on snare
The barber’s broom
Baptizes dead end hair

The stoop plays judge
The hallway holds its breath
The ceiling counts
The seconds like a debt

Rent’s due on Tuesday
Hope due every day
We smile like saints
And stash the ache away

Neon on the strip
Like bruises learning glow
Sweet on the surface
Rust beneath the show

A kid in lenses
Large as lunar moons
Walks calm like thunder
Folded into tunes

He speaks in soft
But something in him bites
A quiet spark
That practices for nights

Not in the bang in the hush
Not in the scream in the hush
Not in the posts in the hush
Not in the peace in the hush

Kunyema (be angry)
Ki buhata (it’s a lie)
Kunyema
Ki buhata

Quiet is a lie
It wears a halo
Quiet is a lie

Grief don’t cry
It growls and don’t let go
Quiet is a lie

Peace ain’t free
It hides where cameras glow
Quiet is a lie

This block got rules you feel
Before you know
Quiet is a lie

We buy the hush with peace
Then buy peace with hush
Quiet is a lie

Same war new wardrobe
Same wound new blush
Quiet is a lie

Kunyema
Ki buhata
Kunyema
Ki buhata

She says I’m fine
Like wine poured over ash
He laughs too loud to hide the crack
The crash

A phone lights up like scripture
In the dark
Then dims
Like God got tired of being marked

Thin walls hear everything
Then play them dumb
They learn the art
Of looking numb as stone

A door don’t close
It claps like cruel applause
The kitchen clock just ticks
Without a cause

The porch stays still
Not safe
Just trained to freeze
Like fear in Sunday shoes
Polite as please

The neighbor’s TV jokes at
Something grimmmm
And then irony sits down
And eats with him

One moment sweet
The next a sudden chill
Love turns to paperwork
And unpaid bills

And in the corner
Quiet clears its throat
Like it’s about to sing
Then swallows smoke

The quiet isn’t calm
It’s camouflage
A velvet veil
That files away the flaws

We hide our hurt
To look like we’re at peace
Then lose our peace
The moment we hide
At least

We fear the noise
That names the pain
We hide
We hide the pain
That names the noise
We fear inside

Kunyema
Ki buhata
Kunyema
Ki buhata

Quiet is a lie
Whole cities learn to whisper
Quiet is a lie

Whole skies go gray
Like daylight lost its filter

Peace plays dead
Then breathes when
You look away

Truth gets tried
While trouble
Learns to pray
Quiet is a lie

We buy the hush
With peace
Then buy peace
With hush
Quiet is a lie

Same ghosts
New pupils
Same bruise
Same blush
Quiet is a lie

Welcome to the hush
Where the hard survive
Where quiet is a lie
And havoc stays alive

Kunyema
Ki buhata
Kunyema
Ki buhata

Quiet is a lie
Quiet is a lie

Kunyema
Ki buhata
Kunyema
Ki buhata

Quiet is a lie