I generally fight silence

But there are days when it wins

Today
I sit
quiet
and I listen

Listen as:

air moves leaf against leaf
Big leaf, small leaf, in-between leaf
Each brush a distinct sound stroke
A multi-tonal
“Hush!”

the flowers
of the neighbours’ jacaranda
fall
Plop, plop, plop
onto our Strelizia’s large leaves
Boundary-erasing purple rain

something scratch-scratches
in the undergrowth
under my window

Has one of the dogs got out?
I almost get up
Stop listening

but no
It’s the Hadeda Ibis
rooting for the ill-fated worm
It’s the rustle of
nature communing with nature
offering itself
consuming itself
A fierce, fearless, closed loop of
provide and eat
eat and provide

And my self-protective humanness feels
like a frail outsideness

a complicated loneliness

Perhaps this
is why
I generally fight silence