stille nacht

sitting there at the glass table,
i am silent
she is staring off
fidgeting as the dog continues to ignore her gestures
for a second she is vulnerable
for a second i am as clear as the kitchen table
the smell of cous-cous permeates the air
you could cut it with a knife
but please don't destroy it
let it be
let us be silent
let us be who we are
together

Buechner says we all suffer to some degree from deafness, or at least we are hard of hearing. We find it very hard to hear what other people are saying, either hard as in difficult or hard as in painful, or really both. he says we often use the words we speak to conceal rather than to reveal who we really are and what we really think.

from the Hungering Dark, which is brilliant by the way:

"The truth of it is that if you really listen to another person, whether on the surface he is talking about the weather or predicting the outcome of the World Series or even preaching a sermon, if you really listen, you begin to realize that what he is really talking about is himself. He is saying, "Love me" or maybe "Hate me" or "Pity me," but he is always saying one way or another, "Listen to me. Know me." Only most of the time people like you and me are deaf to this. We hear only the words. We hear only what is comfortable for us to hear. But once in a while, by the grace of God more often that not, we hear scraps at least of what people are actually saying."