The silence stretches

Even as the wind blows,

I catch small snatches

Of the bells incessant toll.

A leaf trembles

On a slim limb.

Life goes on,

Again and again.

To give us love,

To give us grief,

To sit alone

Like the trembling leaf,

To taunt the soul,

To daunt belief

Of being whole

Or incomplete.

A cardinal lands,

Raises its head,

Flies away,

A flash of red.

Another leaf falls

In the blowin' wind.

Another love goes,

Another life ends.

But always the silence crashes

And the beauty blinds

Behind my lowered lashes,

I block what is unkind.

I block the beauty

That's not mine,

The love I cannot find.