Emily Winters                                                                                        

“silence in between”

bare feet seeing

ducking through the lush forest

hidden faces within the trees

with designs of nothing but innocent curiosity

no malicious artifices

have the snakes who weave our baskets

nor the worms who surreptitiously wink into existence

between toes and inside graves

ancient stones

hallowed words

the hush in between the period and the capital

the silence in between notes

weight of gravity upon our shoulders

fixing us to Earth

tying our dreams to the necessity of success

the family name

expectation

reputation

honor or betrayal

what’s in a name?

mute humans yet inscriptions

speak volumes

silence that tells all

the hyphen in between birth and renewal

that hides our fabric –

it’s the actions that define

gaping eyes

wide mouths

struggle to comprehend the immensity

of possibility

the scope of history

traces fingers through standing stones

to feel the thrum

of the truth

bare feet

ribbons of glass to wind in hair

to catch the rainbows

that seep from ears

grass to coat the roots

to wrap our feet

with dreams, memories of spring

to keep the corpses warm

it’s the silence in between

whispered “I love you’s”

that are the only constants

the only truths.