Though language enrapts us,
Nothing defines us more,
even more, than our words.
The ocean pounds the shore;
the shore resists ocean’s pulse.
I must learn to bend my words
between the sacred and profane:
can my utterance demand
something more from silence?
All the chatter, the clatter
and prattle, dances about
between her bangled feet,
whispering meaning as if
the dust that rises softly
with each step changes
the earth’s slow pattern
enough to unfold a different
shape to what I want to hear.
(January 3, 2015)
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