Together - Sept 7 2024

 

Together

Sept 7 2024

We sat together

not saying a word

for what might have been hours.

But not the awkward silence

of too anxious to speak.

Not caught in an open field

by a fast moving storm

too paralyzed to flee;

loud thunder, getting louder,

and the cold shadow

of a black anvil cloud

towering overhead.

Instead, we were perfectly at ease.

The simple pleasure

of being together

and being ourselves;

accepted

despite our numerous flaws.

Yet I’m a talker.

For me, it's as if a silent space

will collapse on itself

if words aren’t there to fill it.

As if my duty

is to inform

delight

amuse.

As if I'm being judged,

and a wall of words

will impress,

or at best

entertain.

But when we sat together

I felt fully at ease,

nothing like

the flush of discomfort

I almost always feel.

So not like a thunderstorm

bearing down

with hail, lightning, and pelting rain,

but more a steamy day

in a tropical summer,

when the rain we've been desperate for

finally falls

and the humidity breaks.

The feeling

that there was no need to talk

was like a cool balm

in a feverish world

swamped in noise.