The Thing That Waits
Silence lives in those places
no one ever visits except by accident,
coming at the end of words and vows -
the wrong turn on a windless night
that forces you to stop somewhere
you fear you can’t be found, some
place never written down on maps.
This is the silence… the thing that waits
between the screams of a zillion cicadas
in suicide season, holding its breath until
the hot buzz stops all at once, and
nearly topples us over into dust.
Before the wet, the mangoes hang & drop,
out of sight of human ears. There is no sound
silence does not hear, even when
no one’s listening. This is the silence Silence is:
the shout-less shout, the essential word
without which there can be no words at all.
Copyright © Billy Marshall Stoneking | Year Posted 2014
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