friend are likely to be critical of his regime and his way of governing and wishes to frighten and intimidate them with his display of power and cruelty. Forch and her colleague Terrence Des Pres hoped that their poetry and political writing would make a difference by educating American readers about conditions in the world outside the United States. Its possible the last two lines refer to that audience in that her readers could choose to hear her message (that is catch this scrap of his voice) or they could ignore it and keep their ears pressed to the ground.