do not speak aloud

do not speak aloud

beyond a commercial strip 

there are trees that precede the 

strip by hundreds of years and 

are aware of earlier 

worlds that we know nothing of 

and it as though the trees laugh 

at us as we speed by in 

cars not acknowledging the 

life and giving it its due 

as bass booms through the neon-

lit underbelly of a 

sealed blue sports utility 

vehicle and its booming

low frequencies cause the cars 

of surrounding drivers to 

vibrate—do not speak aloud 

do not give voice to the silence 

below the deep rumbling bass 

do not wait for an entry 

into the quiet lands up in 

the high cloud peaks the high space 

the pure saturating light