There is a something that occurs

when nothing else does

An emptiness fills the room

a silence

it creeps

seeps

into the outer edge of consciousness

A heartbeat

heard

Is this what I run away from?

This

nothing

When I pick up a glass

fill it

The way I used to

light a cigarette

breathe in

smoke curling

inhaling

Trying to plug the hole

that stems from within

yawns

grins

at me as I stare in fixed concentration

at the nothing

but I can’t

fill it

quiet it

For it is quietness itself

revealed

Unconcealed it waits

When I finally stop

it grates

on my nerves

my blood filled veins

pump

I jump

peer over

The anaesthetic wall

between us

There is no cigarette

no alcohol

no drug

Nothing to fill the nothing

which seems to hum

like  a living thing

so the clock ticks

and the crickets click

and the night closes in

and we sit

you with your glass

me with none

and the whole world unravelling

one

by

one

 

 

 

 

The header photo is a shot taken at Lake Nooga Nooga in Western Qld.