A Quiet Place Poem by Joan Xie

Here I am when I close my eyes

sliding down cliffs
whispering to the red sands
— as a drop of memory in a vast, silent universe.

If you listen with your heart, said Father,
you can always hear the footsteps of Jurassic giants.
They gaze those lonely clouds
just like us.

But, father, dinosaurs are extinct.

Father shook his head, a geologist who knew stones.
They never disappeared,
Just disappeared into the stones.

Why?

Because they need a quiet place to sing.

Here I am when I close my eyes
touching the vermilion wrinkles of the earth.
As my dreary heart finds no solace among the chaos,
As my longing knows no ends,
I too need a quiet place to sing -