Horseshoe Crabs and Tangled Hair

quiet

There's an owl outside
and I haven't heard
owls since Massachusetts
with the dark weave of tree branches
and the solid scent of pine
the ultimate quietness of a soft ocean
at night.

There is a difference between city
houses, suburban houses, built of
sheetrock and sturdy window frames,
and houses built far apart, where
sea-grass meets doorframe and
sand meets carpet, where the night
is not blurred and broken into shards
of streetlight, where a soft breeze
rustles leaves and rumbles gravel,
where there is no super highway, no airplanes,

no barrier

between you and the fresh air
the sound of an owl
and the whisper of something far
older.

~Hammeh