Ode to an Old Friend

Silence is not empty or flat.
It’s Chatter that cools fear,
Bubbling it down, until there’s no chance of spillage.

We talked best
When we were silent.
They used to say they couldn’t understand,
That we must have a whole language in Silence.

But they got it wrong.
We didn’t talk in Silence,
No word by word choo-choo train.
We listened to the same nothing.
Relaxed, into the amazing
Reverberating echo of that nothing.

I said nothing.
You said nothing back.
We swallowed silence in gallons.
In oceans.
In big bangs.
In silence, we had power.


Silence, now,
I fear will dissolve my voice forever.

I think you talk too much, now, too.



CLR