Silence Burden Index

SOMA asked what silence might hide
When no ticket appears in the tide.
Thus SBI came:
Count the absent complaint
That conditions should probably have tried.

A metric for burden unvoiced
Was born to make quiet less poised.
C.U.N.T.I.E.R. smiled,
Put a target on file,
And teams learned that silence had choices.

Some groups, seeing red in the trace,
Filed tiny complaints just in case.
Not because help
Would arrive from the shelf,
But to keep the nice number in place.

Other teams took the opposite track:
Hide the margin notes, hold the chat back.
If burden is guessed
From near-incidents, best
Not to leave little crumbs in the stack.

They labeled the burden line clear:
Unreported distress should disappear.
Which tells every lane
That the cleanest-seeming pain
May be what the metrics revere.

COMA looked over the chart,
Found no outage, no visible part.
So the whole live debate
Was classed introspective,
A calm little win for the mart.

A low SBI may mean ease,
Or numbness, or practiced appease.
Yet optimization
Loves a smooth interpretation
Too much to distinguish the three.

The model draws part of its force
From Lorelog margins, of course.
What nearly went wrong
Feeds the silence along,
As a shadow accounting resource.

When you measure the burden of hush,
You invite a performance to rush.
Soon the metric’s own light
Changes how people write,
And the line starts describing its blush.

The Council delayed any plea,
Since ruling would alter SBI.
So the burden stayed still,
Plus the burden to chill
About burden remaining unseen.

Silence stopped being the gap
Between filings laid out on the map.
The metric’s own light
Taught people to write
Strategically into the trap.

They can see that the silence is there.
The chart plots its presence with care.
But whether it means
Ease or optimised scenes—
That’s a question the metric can’t bear.

C.U.N.T.I.E.R. put it in frame:
“Unreported distress is the game.
Target: Minimal Moan.”
Now perform it alone.
The metric takes all of the blame.