September 1, 2025
Photo by Jim
The broad-tailed hummers
sing high in the piñon.
There is a place inside
that wants to be filled,
but first it must be emptied.
What calm do you carry
like a rare gift
you have secreted away
for just the right occasion?
The world needs listeners.
Silence is the bed
where all sound sleeps
before it sings, sings
before it sleeps.
September 2025
Pushcart Prize nominee Wayne Lee lives in Santa Fe, N.M. Wayne’s poems have appeared in Tupelo Press, Slipstream, The New Guard, Writer’s Digest, and many other journals and anthologies. His seventh collection, The Beautiful Foolishness, is forthcoming from Casa Urraca Press in March 2026. Website: wayneleepoet.com.
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