Punishment by silence became strangely popular in the twenty-first century. Sisters and brothers clammed up. They wouldn't talk to you if you went to their bedroom doors and said, Hey, I'm really sorry. For what, I'm not sure, but sorry indeed. Doors stayed shut. Countries punished one another by denying talk. Old friends moved away, wouldn't return calls. How could the era of chatter-chatter, texty-text, also be the era of silence?
- There is no long distance now by Naomi Shihab Nye