“Hushed” from The Safety of Edges

HUSHED

In the library the young girl
her mother checking email
sang a little song she was
making in the moment it wasn’t
being sung for her mother
or herself it wasn’t being sung
for anyone around her it was only
being sung for the sake
of being sung her heart and mouth
moving in the movement of the song
and I knew who she was
beyond what I knew she was me
as a child singing to be singing
and I knew that her mother
in the library would stop her
would tell her to be quiet
how could she not but oh
for the singing that seeks
no applause and is ours
even in the silence