Study Hall

I sit in an uncomfortable silence, watched but unsupervised.
The unwelcome symphony of my every movement
Stiffens my worn, arthritic ears.  I yearn to stretch them.

I sit in a painful silence, supervising a room full of trained humans
Who have been told that their thoughts are irrelevant,
That the expression thereof is unwelcome.

The silence can make a silence uncomfortable.
Only the explanation can make a silence painful.

Intrusion will make that silence unbearable.