Of stars and stones

Of stars and stones                                                                                       
 
When they plant my stone on the green hillside
nothing earth-shattering will occur –
 
the ocean and the stars will function as ever before
once my little boat slips under the waves.
 
Often I listen to the world now as if I’m in a casket.
Listen to my thoughts as if they were wind in the trees.
 
Listen beyond the palpable noises,
beyond the stream of my thoughts
 
to the silence underlying every sound, inside and out.
The silence of stars and stones.  The silence of the blue sky
 
behind the clouds.  The silence of death.
I listen to – whether real or imagined –
 
the silence my Lord saved up for a lifetime
and left for me and others to listen to in our loneliness.
 
O child of God, why not, asked Meher,
consider yourself already dead?