Image courtesy of Ricardo A. Shared via a Creative Commons license.

—-

There is a Silence

With time, I learned to make pleasant
the noise of MRI machines;
to morph high decibels
into a memory of my grandfather.

Askenish, Hanover, 1995:
his frail fingers grate cocoa beans,
pour nibs into boiling water,
sweep aroma up into his being,

time itself pauses to inhale.

We sip against the backdrop
of cackling fowls; warner women;
the usual Sunday morning skirls

but between the crackle of coal,
the sporadic clank of spoons
on enamel mugs

there is a silence,

the kind of silence
that can be summoned
like a memory.

 

—-

 

Juleus Ghunta is a motivational speaker and poet. He has a B.A. in Media from the University of the West Indies, Mona (2010). His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in BIM, Bookends (Jamaica Observer), Poetry Pacific, Susumba’s Book Bag and Poui.