Quietly
I leave my mark

A thread slips from
my pocket seam
An indentation from my shoe
mars the fresh soil

I breathe it in
I breathe out

The green I know and love
fades
My world is
ensconced in black and white

A twig falls to the ground
but I do not hear it

I can no longer hear
my own heart beat

Although I see the
small swallow hop from
branch to branch,
its sweet song escapes me


I want to yell,
to scream,
to shout

but the quiet would not allow that


The silence is stifling
Thick and heavy
like the summer heat
pulsating off the city’s asphalt
in late July

My inner-compass goes haywire
I barely can recognize
which way is up,
let along east or west.

I am alone
I am unsure
I am being suffocated
So I calmly walk

forward

Hesitation flits through
my nerves
acting as a butterfly
fresh from metamorphosis

I keep moving
farther along,
praying that soon
color will return.

02/11/2015

Author's Note: An ekphrastic poem inspired by Wolfgang Tillmans’ “Wald”

Posted on 02/11/2015
Copyright © 2025 Caitlin Schwartz