the stillness is immersive
there is silence within this room
outside, the work of the world
continues
the people go to and fro
the carpenter is lost in his work
there are no thoughts at midday
like shadows we just carry on
with our mysterious ways
without even knowing why
no words are spoken
no waking slumber is awoken
the things around us become unintelligible
incomprehensible
the handbag dangling from her arm
is a mystery
the paint brush swaying rhythmically in his hand
is an unsolvable puzzle
our eyes empty, yet our lives at that moment somehow free
in this hour of no shadow
when stark reality is at its most intense
a profundity is revealed in plain movement
so simple, so obvious, so natural
we wonder how we never knew it was always there
the profundity of small things
reaches out through us
the arm with the hand stretched out to the door
the feet that find their way
the fly hovering in the air
and the deep, imperceptible illusion
that we are all here
that there are things in this world
and we are among those things
as if nothing had ever been but us and these things
and nothing would ever change
and in that moment
we realize
that we are all already lost
that time will have already claimed us
with a cruel and inescapable certainty
that we have all already disappeared from this earth
yet carry on
and continue to exist
in eternal moments
the carpenter saws
the dress flutters in the breeze
the hand waves
the shoulders sway
the people live on
like ghosts before they've died
each of us already dead stars
whose light, so far away
still shines.
