A poem
This suited free verse, the subject being formless, more or less.
You can read this one silently in your mind, old friend. Take your time, don’t rush.
Silence
I was sitting in silence yesterday,
and it spoke to me.
‘Do you like me?’ it asked.
‘Sure,’ I said.
‘Mostly. Not always.’
‘Tell me more,’ it implored silently.
So, I silently thought about silence.
The unnerving silence of the first night in the West,
newly arrived from a noisy nation,
the mind so empty
it won’t fill with sleep,
and you’re homesick
in the best place in the world.
The silence of a board-exam hall,
fears and expectations
rising and filling the space
over unripe heads bowed
and shoulders hunched,
writing their future and fate.
The silence of the ICU
in the middle of the night,
as you watch a loved one unconscious,
wrapped peacefully, uncaring
and content like a baby,
as you watch with helpless dread.
The unbearable silence full of a cacophony
of dialogues in the mind
between you and your beloved,
when you’re upset with each other,
and not talking.
The silence of rooms
where kids have grown and left.
The lonely silence of irrelevance.
But it’s not all bad.
For there is comforting silence, too.
The confidently claimed,
timeless, erudite silence
of waiting books in a library.
The comfortable silence
of old friends
or spouses together,
everything known,
taken for granted,
and so what?
Isn’t that the sign of belonging?
The expectant silence
between a koel’s distant calls.
The blessed silence
when a baby stops crying.
Sibilant silence
of night mode on a plane,
when you lie quietly awake
and wonder if, or
how, everyone else is asleep.
The silence of empty glistening streets
at night,
when it stops raining.
Above all, the majestic silence
of the cosmic firmament
of stars and the Milky Way,
and the dawn.
Silences perfect
with peace,
or familiar expectation.
And when we, puny humans,
choose not to speak,
is the silence cowardly or brave,
foolish or wise?
‘I do like you,’ I told silence.
‘How can I not?’ I said.
‘For you are me,
and I am you.’
The silence I’ll become when I pass.
The eternal silence I’ll pass into.
