A Bird Alights

A man shouts and nobody hears him, so he raises his voice; a bird alights from a tree in a distant forest and the trees rustle and sway.

A tree rustles and sways and nobody hears it, for a tree cannot raise its voice; a fireman in a distant city attaches a hose to a hydrant and releases the valve.

A fireman sprays the crowd with water, heavy droplets splatter on the asphalt; adults and children jump and laugh through the spray.

Adults and children jump and laugh through the spray, for it is a reprieve from the heat; in a distant desert a scorpion burrows into the sand.

A scorpion burrows into the sand and it makes no sound that we can hear; in a distant ocean a whale sings and we don’t know what it means.

In a distant ocean a whale sings and they hear it in their submarines; in a distant office somebody reads a print-out about unrelated things.

As someone reads a print-out about unrelated things, a telephone rings; in a distant jungle monkeys chew on fruit and throw fruit at one another.

In a distant jungle, the seeds from thrown fruit fall to become trees; in distant space planets orbit around stars because of gravity.

In the past, a man watches on a telescope.