Masses: Silence

painting by Marlene Vine (marlenevine.com), poem by Roy Herndon Smith

breezes ruffle leaves
the shadow of a bird flies
on the grey pavement

a gutter bends on
the newly painted red house
with the olive roof

waste water trickles
then flushes down the drain pipe
behind the wall of

the study where I
tap these marks about silence
into a blank space

sometimes I forget
a word, the neurologist
says, not to worry

just the usual
time cleaning up what was to
make space for what is

something I don’t have
a name for fills the world with
whirring, then it stops