Silence

The bare staircase leads somewhere.

I don’t know how to follow it.

What to do to know for sure about the cacophony behind it.

The staircase leads somewhere I know with people and laughter.

The dark hallway leads to a world of light,

The light overflows into the halls.

But the darkness remains still.

An oppressive burden, constricting and twisting the walls.

The walls are lumpy and uneven, the windows remain closed.

But the staircase leads somewhere I know.

The sound carries inside the walls but the darkness remains still.

The movements are slow and time fast,

The breathing loud and trembling not.

To keep the silence the darkness grows uneasy.

The silence easy to coerce, with no free will.