DO YOU HEAR THE QUIET

do you hear the quiet
listen as it calls
the silence reaches far, wide
covering the ground, sky
filling in all the cracks
where there is space
supposed to be, invisible, close, near
here, there you can feel it, looming
in scope, enveloping, whole, as you cast
your eyes across the way, there in the stillness
living arcs of lightening, throb, building
to illuminate, crisscross, with energy contained
drawn by heat, it bears down upon, to feed
the silence, ready to let your mind run wild
as you imagine in your minds eye, the sound of
fury, with a crack and hiss;  unheard, the power
of sound held at bay, in a safe distance, still faraway

by Michael Perry