what silence

what silence is for a church mouse
makes a music unknown to pines
when darkness sets in---the moans
and creaks of cedar bark and curves

of earth--bound on a single silver thread
a broken bird's wing--directed towards
wholeness has a way of re-calibrating
the essential--no longer lingering

on clam shells and poppies, long
over their peak in the meadow
of benevolence; how we breathed
without a single rehearsal,

how the softest whale song
emitted an electric blue energy
so close to the edge of the high tide mark
and the cypress, leaning in towards
the shaded pine province

exactly at sunset
when the quiet was deafening
and the mild blue sky air
would wrap garlands of unpredictable

joy seeping from the now rising creek
a lizard's tongue reaching
its mouthpiece clear through
the still unconcerned pond

(words & photo~ kate lamberg (c) '14)