Silence

Silence

You are sinew

between sound

source of word

home of melody

the pause

a bridging gap

from this breath

to the next

You are the stories of spores

clinging to the underside

of a fern frond

in the distant forest

the cry of stony atoms

spinning in the heart

of Michelangelo’s Mary

who holds her cold son

the dark messenger

between star and planet

and the feathers

of a raven’s wing

You are what comes

before the right question

and what should follow

the impertinent answer

witness to the gift not given

a service not rendered

the trigger not pulled

a resentment forgotten

You are an infant’s gaze

the flushed skin of the lover

a parent’s greatest fear

the elder’s forgotten tale

and when we are done

whether ready or resistant

You are the summons

we will follow