One – two – three – four – stop
Seven – eight – nine – stop
Twenty one- twenty two- stop –
count them out
thirty-two. thirty three.
stop.
measure
forty.
forty one.
stop.
the intervals
sixty.
sixty-one.
between one sound
stop.
and the next
see if it’s true
count out the loss
the widening silence
between cricket songs
dragonflies seen darting
seventy-one
stop.
between mosquitos
Tell me I’m wrong. Tell me that it’s because I live in an urban area. Tell me I’ve always had to travel, ride thirty minutes out – before I’d see any. Tell me it’s only happening here. Tell me they’re just waiting –
Like those birds
Waiting –
measuring the silence
after the end of the great war
to see if it was time to sing
stop.
please
tell me it’s not too late
and that the silence is done growing
Tyler Pennock
Tyler is an Indigenous two-spirit queerdo from Northern Alberta, author of Bones. They are a graduate of Guelph’s Creative Writing MFA. They live in Toronto.
