The Quiet Machine.

Written and read by Adely Mone.

I'm learning so many different ways to be quiet.

There's how I stand in the lawn.

That's one way.

There's also how I stand in the field across from the street.

That's another way because I'm farther from people and therefore more likely to be alone.

There's how I don't answer the phone.

And how I sometimes like to lie down on the floor of the kitchen and pretend I'm not

home when people knock.

There's daytime silent when I stare and nighttime silent when I do things.

There's shower silent and bath silent and California silent and Kentucky silent and

car silent and then there's a silence that comes back and a million times bigger than

me.

Sneaks into my bones and whales and whales and whales until I can't be quiet anymore.

That's how this machine works.