KS Culbreth

When the Hum and Buzz are Silenced

when the hum and buzz are silenced
and in the breakfront we fumble
through silver-plated ware, old wrappings
and ribbons, fingers groping for candles;
when the hum and buzz is silenced
and we light the room with small flames
and the gray glow of fixtures and tubes
is dead as the old wars and we are forced
one to entertain the other, a night of laughter;
when the hum and buzz which is the bourdon
of too great a progress, is silenced unto
the isolation of a lone mountaintop
where is discovered the bones
of the unknown, that final silence
of the hum and buzz,
to me then that is being alive and loving.