Noises II

A soft ‘whumph’ silence
Whumph, silence. Whumph, silence
Woke me from my slumber
In cold darkness, absolute darkness
The smell of oiled pine assailed my nostrils
Edged with the nicer smell of wet earth
Whumph, silence, a softer whumph
Silence
Another whumph yet softer still
I yawned and stretched
My hands hit soft velvet in the darkness
Whumph, silence
Velvet to the side of me, velvet behind
And velvet above me
Whumph, silence, a hardly heard
Whumph, silence
The whumphs grew quieter
The silences longer
Until, at last, there was only
Silence
I remembered the sound of colliding metal
The tinkling sound of breaking glass
I remembered the sound of metal
Grinding over concrete
And the sound as the roof of my car
Caved in as it overturned
I remembered the accident
I remembered the soft, wet, melon thud
As my head split open
As the lorry hit my car
I remembered the sound of my blood
Gushing, pumped from open wounds
I remembered the last beat of my heart
Silence
A quiet calm overtook me
The pine gently creaked under the weight
Of the earth above it
And the earth sighed as it settled
Above me
The earth settled further and
The pine creaked some more
Then silence
Silence for an hour, a day, two days
A week
Blessed silence
Between the noises of the worms
As they tunnelled above me
And beneath me and to the side of me
And the sound of insects
As they tunnelled into my coffin and my bones
I heard the sound of mushrooms growing
In my flesh and the sound of rot
As it overtook my body
I heard the noise of spring
As flowers rose from the
Hard earth of winter
I heard them bloom
I heard the sound of rain as it
Pattered from the heavens
To fall upon my grave
I heard the sound of snow
As it settled on my tombstone
I heard the seasons come and go
And all around me
Silence
I used to hear you cry
As you placed flowers on my grave
I heard your tears
As they hit the soft earth
Above me
I heard you in between the
Silences
The seasons came and went
The silences grew longer still
Until at last you no longer came
And silence reigned
What time passed I could not tell
For my mind lost track of time
Between the seasons
But I heard you call my name one day
And I looked for you
I saw you standing in that light so bright
And beckon me to come
I rose up and I went to you
I followed where you led
And all at once I heard again
A sound so warm and calming
I heard the sound of an angels choir
As they sang their celestial hymns
To the glory of his name
I knew one day you’d come for me
As I lay within the earth
I knew one day you’d call to me
To join me when you could
The silences I had endured
I would endure no more
I’d waited and you’d came to me
As once you promised you would.

Thank you to Lulu’s Lines for Inspiration.