The quiet

was deafening.

The silence

roared in my face

as the workman

signed off

on another job,

smiling as the payment cleared.

In fear of the calm,

the hammer and nail

withdrawn,

I turned on the radio

to thunderous applause

only to understand

that the sound

was just static,

unstill, crowded white noise

and not the end of a concert

that I had missed.

Ian D. Hall 2022.