The Sound of Silence

It’s always there in the backdrop
Everything brought out vibrant
Because it lies in the back of everything
Like hues more brilliant superimposed on white
A blank
Words float about
Music flows in and out
Laughter.. it lingers around
A shout echoes through that space, that time
It’s quiet – but not quite
Calm is broken
Telling tales, giggling over nothing
A muffled sob
A stifled cry
Reaching beyond – stripping it of all that veils it
And there – a standstill
The sound of silence
It is the loudest of all.

-Shivani Chauhan