How does a breath
Claim identity on the wind?
One drop in a storm
Just like any other in the sea?

Fear of Babel snatches the breeze
Saps the seas
Fear throws itself upon the world
Like the curtain on a birdcage

Yet every Tempest
Every mighty crash upon the shores
From the lone gust curling?
From the rising spray?
A first note in the silent night?

Under starless sky
Still waters
In dead air
Behind the curtain
I open my mouth.