the quiet people

Does a person exist beneath those robes?
Or just a mess of flesh and gears?
Is there mouth, that dares not speak?
Or is the face blank behind that scarf?
Is it sewn away by strips of black cloth?

Do they walk?
Or do they follow?

Dragged?
By husbands?
By children?
By culture?

Is it hard to hear?
Is it hard to see?

Tell me
Teach me
What is beneath those robes?
A life?
Or simply a tradition?