Nothing at All By:Kilee De La Cruz

Nothing at All by Kilee De La Cruz

I was walking back from class down a hill

On a sunny afternoon in Corvallis

Under the rays of sunshine and leafy trees

Once and awhile the sun comes out to play
The kids abandon their caves and enjoy the day
For everyone is glad to play around

 

I saw people walking around and talking loud
Overhearing the nature of their conversations
Two people were talking about the fine weather
Others were talking about a difficult class
Some walked in complete silence with not a word said

But the thing was they were all speaking non-sense

It didn’t matter that I didn’t understand
I was content just listening to the chatter
Life wasn’t about listening to jumbled words
The words that are spoken but never heard
They float in the air never going anywhere but staying still
Flow of the words lost as the person took a breath

We all walked in the same direction straight forward
Almost to the end, my haven away from the chatter
Each step that was taken pushed me closer
Each breath I took was a fueling my body towards my dorm
The place that I called home, for almost a year
Till I saw something out of the corner of my eye

I smiled at my friend walking right next to me

It wasn’t just me walking in the sun, I now had a purpose

To talk story and share my thoughts and ideas
The words wouldn’t be lost in the air from mouth to ear
Meanings and understanding would connect from words to ideas
It was now the words turn to finally step up and speak

 THE SINGING by C. K. Williams

I was walking home down a hill near our house

on a balmy afternoon
under the blossoms
Of the pear trees that go flamboyantly mad here
every spring with
their burgeoning forth

When a young man turned in from a corner singing
no it was more of
a cadenced shouting
Most of which I couldn't catch I thought because
the young man was
black speaking black

It didn't matter I could tell he was making his
song up which pleased
me he was nice-looking
Husky dressed in some style of big pants obviously
full of himself
hence his lyrical flowing over

We went along in the same direction then he noticed
me there almost
beside him and "Big"
He shouted-sang "Big" and I thought how droll
to have my height
incorporated in his song

So I smiled but the face of the young man showed nothing

he looked

in fact pointedly away
And his song changed "I'm not a nice person"
he chanted "I'm not
I'm not a nice person"

No menace was meant I gathered no particular threat
but he did want
to be certain I knew
That if my smile implied I conceived of anything like concord
between us I should forget it

That's all nothing else happened his song became

indecipherable to
me again he arrived
Where he was going a house where a girl in braids
waited for him on
the porch that was all

No one saw no one heard all the unasked and

unanswered questions
were left where they were
It occurred to me to sing back "I'm not a nice
person either" but I
couldn't come up with a tune

Besides I wouldn't have meant it nor he have believed

it both of us
knew just where we were
In the duet we composed the equation we made
the conventions to
which we were condemned

Sometimes it feels even when no one is there that

someone something
is watching and listening
Someone to rectify redo remake this time again though
no one saw nor
heard no one was there