One Small Consolation (Poetry)

I am hungry for it —
ravenous for those scraps of silence
they so often steal from me
for hours at a time

Now — when it lies placid
an oasis found at 2am
I wallow in it grateful
as a gasping frog in a longed-for ditch

It has a coolness to it —
soothing as a balm
spread on a fevered brow
the sheer relief unequalled

Thoughts drop into the quiet
allowed to ripple uninterrupted
imagination swims naked
in the absence of noise

Too soon the clamour will start up
                                                again
hubbub — wave on wave of din
attack the eardrums — drive away
all calm as though an enemy’s invading ...

Any right to peace crumbling —
eroded by a race of chaos-makers
all screech and yell
their wild babble killing sweet tranquility

One small consolation —
that death will make them dumb
eventually cut out those tongues
the quiet earth mercifully choke them