Friday, November 12, 2021

SILENCE SPEAKS

Listen: 
just underneath
the clamor 

of the Earth 
as she's heaving 

her second-
to-last breath;

just in-between
our having come this far 
reluctantly

and the chaotic way 
we are cleft 
as we leave—

an absence 
interposes; 

a silence 
that speaks.

There are moments, it says, 
when we can't act 
as we must;

there are endings 
far more everlasting 
than heaven—

yet less abrupt 
than death.