Quiet

Have you ever wondered? Well, I have

About how when I say, say, red, for example

There's no way of knowing if red

Means the same thing in your head

As red means in my head

When someone says red?

And how if we are travelling

At almost the speed of light

And we're holding a light

That light would still travel away from us

At the full speed of light?

Which seems right in a way

But I'm trying to say I'm not sure

But I'm wondering inside my head

I'm not just a bit different from some of my friends

These answers that come into my mind unbidden

These stories delivered to me fully written

And when everyone shouts, they seem to like shouting

The noise in my head is incredibly loud

And I just wish they'd stop, my dad and my mum

And the telly and stories would stop just for once

I'm sorry, I'm not quite explaining it right

But this noise becomes anger, and the anger is light

And its burning inside me would usually fade

But it isn't today, and the heat and the shouting

And my heart is pounding, and my eyes are burning

And suddenly everything, everything is

Quiet

Like silence, but not really silent

Just that still sort of quiet

Like the sound of a page being turned in a book

Or a pause in a walk in the woods

Quiet

Like silence, but not really silent

Just that nice kind of quiet

Like the sound when you lie upside down in your bed

Just the sound of your heart in your head

And though the people around me

Their mouths are still moving

The words they are forming

Cannot reach me anymore

And it is quiet

And I am warm

Like I've sailed

Into the eye of the storm