Three gulls swooped down from the already low sky

Breaking through the silence that had without warning

Descended everywhere along the road

As we waited, observing the two-meter social distance

between each white and black figure

waiting for Bobby.

 

Joanne next in line to me said

“can you feel it, can you hear it?”

I listened and said, “Yes, I hear it, I feel it”

I had heard so many streams of silence in my seventy years, but,

None like this, this was different

The silence was unbroken

It was a welcomed silence

It was free of collusion, injustice and oppression

It was an expression of pride

For the one who had died

And we breathed deeply hoping to hold it longer, the silence I mean

 

The gulls still circling had ceased their squawking

No one was talking and without a word

We were all equal, we were unified!

 

By

Roseleen Walsh