Silencio

Poems and stories can arise from the oddest prompts. This one came by way of a call from a women's publication (The Ethel) for an essay on "My Favorite Thing".  Immediately picturing a scene from "The Sound of Music", I knew I couldn't produce anything so corny, but I did start thinking about one of my favorite things: Silence. I performed it at the Mesa Verde Writers Conference last summer.    

                                                                 Silencio

Silencio. Seduction whispered in Spanish

Silencio. The seconds separating lightning from thunder 

Oh-dark-hundred in the pre-dawn desert 

Streets muffled with snow

Sand dunes mute in starlight

A cenote’s cerulean depth

The sun eclipsed.

Silencio. After the baby finally falls asleep

Silencio. Between a flutist’s inhale and the note

The breath you hold as your daughter raises the flute to her lips

The theater’s hollow hush when rehearsal ends

Smoke from the last cigarette 

Spilled wine, blood-bright, seeping into a linen tablecloth

A brush about to touch canvas, the painting titled, “Still Life with Stopped Clock.”

Silencio. A legend about insanity should you linger in the quietest room ever built 

Silencio. The E.R. with no patients at 3 a.m. 

Old cemeteries; empty cathedrals; sitting Zazen 

Your dying mother opening her eyes and smiling 

Night so deadened you hear your own heartbeat 

Yet, Silence is impossible to know… 

The inner ear’s white noise a song that will never abandon you

Photo credit: Michael Frye Photography