Silence

Thousands of thousands of hushed years ago,

Out on the edge of Chaos, all alone

I stood on peaks of vapor, high upthrown

Above a sea that knew nor ebb nor flow,

Nor any motion won of winds that blow,

Nor any sound of watery wail or moan,

Nor lisp of wave, nor wandering undertone

Of any tide lost in the night below.

So still it was, I mind me, as I laid

My thirsty ear against mine own faint sigh

To drink of that, I sipped it, half afraid

‘ Twas but the ghost of a dead voice spilled by

The one starved star that tottered through the shade

And came tiptoeing toward me down the sky.