Development

The silence of the long unspeaking,
and the silence of the twilight trees;

the silence that is now a stump
and was once a living limb—

It's taken many years but here I am 
as life begins to fold toward more 

and more silence. I don't mean 
that there's no more bright noise 

in the world; and stubborn noise, and
sputtering. Only that even the raucous 

questions have learned to repeat
themselves in a quieter key.