Pretty Things

Sunlight sounds like a symphony I’ve yet to hear
without teary eyes, or a feeling similar to that of anticipation
of disappearing entirely
I used to say that it were better that I’d not speak
unless spoken to, but now I’m not so sure
today I thought I’d lost my voice
as I waited for you to pick up the phone
six rings and I hung up
you won’t call back
I watched the world wake up while everyone else slept
and the light bled through the fog, the color of chrysanthemums
all i wanted was to know that I could sleep again, tire again
because my heart’s been beating for so long and the sound
it’s beginning to define who I am quite simply
alive
in place
more related to a string of pearls, a porcelain key
than all the creeps and grows on earth
wild and tangled
awake and asleep, always singing with the passing of hours
I’d rather be put on mute.

-Virginia Woolf