trout

Ping

Michael Harlow

   That small but amplified and
crackling moment, when in
the midst of a speech traveling
under the very existential title,
The virtues of not knowing
and keeping quiet.....

   The woman her body tense with
words wanting to be let out, her
lips a thin purse of shivers, leans
forward so deeply into the ears
of her audience that suddenly,

   'Ping' — one of her large, pendulous
earrings swings outward in an arc
of bright light and strikes, like a bell-
tongue exploding on air, the open
mouth of the microphone, into

   Which she is going to say in a most
zen-like way, and quietly — right now:
You know what they say about silence
.....don't you?