I cannot but hope
That in the noise
In the shouting
In the cacophonous din
of hateful words

A silence might slither
Like a garter through the grasses

Let us rest a while
Forget the winds
And the fires
And the rains
And the snows
And the frosts
And the grey

All the quaking
And the blowing
And the yelling
And the fighting
And all the things outside us

Let us rest a while
You
And me

For a moment
You
And me

And nothing else

Deep in the woods
My mind wanders
Beneath the dry leaves underfoot
Beneath the roots knotting
Beneath the critters crawling
Beneath the rains seeping
Beneath the very bedrock
Upon which it all stands

And there under the life I know
I find a life I do not
One of centuries
Millennia
Eons

But still I recognize
And see in that stony face
My own

In the silence

All is louder

Yet all that is louder

I find I can quiet

Till the silence

Reigns

Float with me here
Where the clouds break
Under a sky of gods
Over a storied place
Full of ancient tales
And ancient words
And ancient wisdom

That we might find a way
To breathe air long unbreathed
And know things
Long forgotten