So when the world goes quiet

and midnight comes...

I listen.

Not blindly.

And not without discernment.

I listen with the respect
of someone standing
at the edge of an invisible ocean.

Because I have felt waves
from waters
other people tell me
aren't there.

I've felt presences
I couldn't touch.

I've experienced conversations
that didn't require sound.

And there have been nights
when the distance
between this world...

and whatever exists beyond it...

felt no wider
than a single breath.