Silence is rapid,

concealed

in wind and ventilation

Silence is mingled

with impurities, conglomerations,

buildings, factories, living organisms

and rotating thoughts

Silence leaps inarticulate

through language and agglomeration,

during, before and after

Silence springs forth

wherever time lapses

Silence is swift and rotor bladed,

promptly disappearing

like fish tails in the creek

and Bob Dylan's thinly hidden emergency rhymes,

or hiding

deep inside the afterburners of jet engines

that leave contrails across the sky

Silence moves tense

through the copper and bronze character

of a local train's passage

through an unnecessarily sharp curve of the rail,

in the religious obstinacy

of tinnitus

Silence is quick

as wayfaring lifetimes

and slow like wars

since long declared meaningless

Silence and the speed of light

are good buddies

in the men's clubs of space-time

Silence is numberless and invasive;

is always everywhere

while eternally shifting its position

Silence is the physical strength

of sound

and its applications

Silence's covert threats

are the pillars of society

Silence builds strength and brusqueness

in the water of baptismal fonts,

in the strangeness of the familiar

Silence is the gaping surprise

of recklessness

and the tara of weight

Silence sips light

in the mirrors

Silence is ceaseless

and unattainable

Silence is never short of breath

Resting tuning forks

hide silence

in its various registers

Silence is knocking on doors,

wringing houses, making clean sweeps,

refusing being John Cage's private matter