Always an option

Today I thought about how

silence could be an option

in the early fading away

of light from the windows,

in the random lamplit reading

of books most often looked at but untouched

upon my shelves — basketry, house design,

Anglo-Welsh poetry, mushrooms —

I could stay silent

for this, another night like any,

not try to add any insights to the world

(as if that were what I do anyway)

I could have stayed silent,

but then there was this.

©Wendy Mulhern

January 10, 2020