The blaring horns and the piercing sirens
Of frustrated drivers, police vans and speeding ambulances…
The voices that speak about something seemingly consequential
And then fade into a morass of incoherence.
The breaking news on TV clashes
With the canned laughter coming
From a reel on the smartphone.
Hums that stay in the background…
Screeching tyres and noisy, rude engines
That interrupt polite exchanges and routine niceties.
The pots and pans that clank down noisily in the sink…
The door that slams…
The footsteps that pre-announce
Their impatience and their rushed day.

Silence registers everything–
Our anger, our impatience;
Our protest, our rush.
It absorbs everything. It allows everything.
It carries. It conveys.
It inhales. It exhales.
Our co-operation, our co-existence
Is held together by silence.
We act within it.
We learn because of its grace.
And we retire to it.
Emotion is stirred. Feelings are concoctions.
Thought today, need not come out of thinking.
Silence, however, is our air. It’s what we share.