Uploaded September 2025 | Updated September 2026, 51 minutes ago
The phone is not bugged and the walls have no ears,
And I hate to admit that, despite all our fears,
We don't seem to have made a single blacklist,
For no one at all even knows we exist.
We are free to give speeches, fly banners, beat drums.
When we hold a meeting... Well, nobody comes.
We are free in this land to rise up and rebel,
And our books are not banned; they simply don't sell.
The Eastern block countries are fairer by far.
There you may not speak freely, whoever you are.
But our highest court has a ruling that's stranger:
No need to impede speech that poses no danger.
We are not tormented, harassed or beset.
I think it's because no one's noticed us yet.
They merely ignore us, the worst cut of all.
The walls have no ears -- yet we speak to the walls.
Copyright 1987, 2025 Aya Katz.
Note: I wrote these words in the 1980s. The poem was first published under a pseudonym in A Child Possessed.
If you are a vocalist and would like to do a cover, just drop me a line.
The phone is not bugged and the walls have no ears,
And I hate to admit that, despite all our fears,
We don't seem to have made a single blacklist,
For no one at all even knows we exist.
We are free to give speeches, fly banners, beat drums.
When we hold a meeting... Well, nobody comes.
We are free in this land to rise up and rebel,
And our books are not banned; they simply don't sell.
The Eastern block countries are fairer by far.
There you may not speak freely, whoever you are.
But our highest court has a ruling that's stranger:
No need to impede speech that poses no danger.
We are not tormented, harassed or beset.
I think it's because no one's noticed us yet.
They merely ignore us, the worst cut of all.
The walls have no ears -- yet we speak to the walls.
Copyright 1987, 2025 Aya Katz.
Note: I wrote these words in the 1980s. The poem was first published under a pseudonym in A Child Possessed.
If you are a vocalist and would like to do a cover, just drop me a line.
