Faces and Voices

She looks around
She sees a whirl of familiar faces
They whirl around her in a blurred haze.
They whisper
But she can’t hear them.
She is too drained.
She can’t understand.
She closes her eyes.
She can hear them.
She knows a few tones.
Some distressed, some angry
Some indifferent, some commanding
Some soothing, yet not so soothing
Some brutally attack her for sins which she had not committed.
The whispers become loud voices which come crashing down upon her
They now are in complaining tones
upset, and worrying her.
But she doesn’t know what to say.
Her anxiety rises.
But she tries to keep a calm stance.
For them, she tells herself sternly.
But her voice is lost amidst their voices.
her words of comfort, wasted.
The voices never ask how she is.
The voices don’t know the unsteadiness she feels.
The faces vanish.
The voices stop abruptly.
Its quiet.
Its all dark now.
She can’t stop them from breaking
When she herself is breaking.