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 The Waiting by Belinda Subraman 
						Silence has no zen today.Ambient freeway noise
 from ј mile away,
 the occasional Friday nighter
 coming home 2:00 a.m. Saturday,
 the appliances with  two-tone hums,
 the bumping and grinding
 of an old swamp cooler,
 a distant train,
 forces what has been pushed back
 to break through.
 
 My father needs O 2
 all the time now.
 His innocence
 in countering the surgeons’ truth
 with his wishes and beliefs
 stabs me in the heart
 with love
 while his every movement
 is pain.
 
 He says he is ready
 but I feel his fear.
 
 The hum of the universe
 is machine noise,
 a motor with it’s timing off.
 
 I meditate on this:
 silence is a whistle,
 a din in the wind,
 in the dark.
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