Friday, September 19, 2008

The Sound


Marc says the suffering that we don’t see

still makes a sort of sound—a subtle, soft

noise, nothing like the cries of screams that we

might think of--more the slight scrape of a hat doffed

by a quiet man, ignored as he stands back

to let a lovely woman pass, her dress

just brushing his coat. Or else it’s like a crack

in an old foundation, slowly widening, the stress

and slippage going on unnoticed by

the family upstairs, the daughter leaving

for a date, her mother’s resigned sigh

when she sees her. It’s like the heaving

of a stone into a lake, before it drops.

It’s shy, it’s barely there. It never stops.

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