thick quiets

Are we playing a game -

who can keep quiet the longest

before breaking - speaking?

You'd win.

(you win most games you play.)

(or is it just chance, and i'm

restless)

I'd prefer

to focus on

playing.

---

(Spoken, just for the record,)

I can do silence.

I and the rest of us -

all those

little silences

bowing to convention

the silence between

the complaints

and the kvetching

and the networking

when really nothing

is happening.

into the room: such grumbling

into their late-day conversation

my innocent questioning

of their mutterings on matterings

do you not know what you are doing?

Oh, its not the doings

its the beings

that are so troubling

really who is this Team?

So much stuff but Who

are we?

What histories had been lost in the

doings

so much chatter. Reports and workshops

like hammer and nail

the silence around the Matter

Thickens

like shovel and gravel and six feet

Under.

Repetition as our only permanence.

Breathing, Running. Breaking.

The words change but too much else stays the same

yesterday's poverty's today's inequality I

wonder at the silence on

ownership and the arrogance of assuming

anyone is listening.

Their game:

talk fast hard loud

in certain places at certain times

Repetition of key words

Changing those phrases (environment - sustainability - strategy)

to produce: the same (new man in the corner office, darker colored skin)

the heavy viscosity of the system that

really doesn't move

rapidly transitioning language

leaves the spaces between each note thick

those dark silences

of too many values-priorities untouched

unmoved.

---

When I turn off the lights

finally find a rest

for fables and neurological burn-ways,

there is a wind outside my window

that passes sweetly around my lips

i wrap Silence around me You

old lover with Your

arms and presence

as thick

as the sweetest lavender-scented honey

such glorious viscosity

that sinks into the depths of soul

quieting all else until we find Ourselves

gently carried

home