Silence's Charms

Silence's Charms

The Silence of the day slips into me. She is not overt with her intentions...she just creeps up out of the waiting concrete and the clocks that are cloaking their clicking.

I am ready for it-whatever she may bring. The truth is Silence has no plans: she's just hanging out. It's not like she is lurking in the darkness, ready to strike. She simply stays and adds to infinity. 

She is not to fear. It is our walking into silence that we fear, of not waking from it somehow. However, she's just sitting on her comfortable cushion in no hurry at all, just content to be. She would be surprised to learn that so many of us are threatened by her.

I lose my outlines in her, putting her on like a cloak. I wear her because I like her smell: that still scent that warms the air. I love her voice which says all the more in its echo.

If I really listen to her, she is streaked with knowing. She also has blips of the day, maybe in the vibrations of moving metal or the reflections of the dog downstairs.

She is hardly ever truly silent, this Silence. It's just that I feel her that way, even though she is full of sound.

Text: Kristen Mastromarchi

Photo: Armiche Bolanos Quesada