Everything is muffled,
Like an invisible cotton ball
Stuffing city streets with silence
Car horns don't jar our attentions,
Sirens whistle, not shriek
Passing couples yell to be heard
But there is nothing drowning them out.

This is the calm before the storm,
The void that opens up in the atmosphere
In the moments before the fury drop.
In this quiet,
The whispering gong of silence is deafening.

Then the lightning strikes
And thunder reminds us what it is to hear