The serenity of early morning

The air, fresh and clean, rinsed in sweet overnight rain.

Silence broken only by robins and blackbirds,

then crudely pierced by the screech of a black-backed gull.

 

The traffic has not yet started.

one could believe this space is shared

only by you and nature.

 

But soon the human influence stirs:

cars, and worse, motorbikes,

carving noisily through my sacred peace.

My brief being-as-one with nature

fractures. Why can’t everyone,

just once, be at peace,

with peace itself?

 

And if we must go from A to B,

why not do it quietly,

with respect and consideration for others?

But no, there is a hunger in us

for noise:

the throb and the scream

of combustion engines,

somehow striking a primitive pleasure point,

with no peace, no care,

for the world beyond the self.

 

And yet, beyond the din,

the morning still holds its quiet breath.

Birds continue their sweet song,

reminding me that peace endures,

if only we choose to listen.