<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div dir="auto" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">What The Silence Said</span></div><br><div style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><br></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></p><div style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">Do you still believe in borders now?</span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></p><div style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">Birds soar over your maps and walls, and always have.</span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></p><div style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">You might have watched how the smoke from your own fires</span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></p><div style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">travelled on wind you couldn’t see</span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></p><div style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">wafting over the valley</span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></p><div style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">and up and over the hills and over the next valley and the next hill.</span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></p><div style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">Did you not hear the animals howl and sing?</span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></p><div style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">Or hear the silence of the animals no longer singing?</span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></p><div style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">Now you know what it is to be afraid.</span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></p><div style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">You think this is a dream? It is not</span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></p><div style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">a dream. You think this is a theoretical question?</span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></p><div style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">What do you love more than what you imagine is your singular life?</span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></p><div style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">The water grows clearer. The swans settle and float there.</span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></p><div style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">Are you willing to take your place in the forest again? to become loam</span></div><div style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">and bark</span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></p><div style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">to be a leaf falling. from a great height. to be the worm who eats the leaf</span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></p><div style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">and the bird who eats the worm? Look at the sky: are you</span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></p><div style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">willing to be the sky again?</span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></p><div style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">You think this lesson is</span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></p><div style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">too hard for you You want the time-out to end. You want</span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></p><div style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">to go to the movies as before, to sit and eat with your friends.</span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></p><div style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">It can end now, but not in the way you imagine You know</span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></p><div style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">the mind that has been talking to you for so long—the mind that</span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></p><div style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">can explain everything? Don’t listen.</span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></p><div style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">You were once a citizen of a country called *I Don’t Know*.</span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></p><div style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">Remember the boat that brought you there? It was your body. Climb in.</span></div><div style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><br></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span> - Marie Howe</div></div></body></html>