The world is ending in silence. Villages
Across the globe bristle with dishes
Feeding TV into homes all the waking
Hours. An elder, last speaker of Eyak
On Earth, sits with her great grandkids
Before a communal screen. She is tired
And angry; her breathing device bites.
She longs for silence to teach some Eyak
Words. She musters the will, the strength,
To reach for the remote, to hit mute, to hit
It with all her might, for the legacy of her
People, the survival of her nation’s culture.
But the six-year-old will not yield. And she
Must suffer in silence the end of her world.