I’ve seen the lake, I said
\nand sighed
\nIt is different
\nand the same
\nThe waves do not compete here
\nwith the voices who would capture them
\ncompress them down
\ninto bites and bytes
\nand Alexa-play-soothing-sounds-of-the-seas<\/p>\n
Solitude has its place
\nand silence its time
\nbut the chimes of my friends laughing
\nthe solace of a chance meeting
\nno schedule to mind
\nThat, too, holds comfort
\nthe thrum of the city is music
\nand it can hold the sacred
\nand profane
\nas well as nature, red in tooth and claw<\/p>\n
I long for the passing-by
\nof familiar block
\nwith new graffiti
\nas my shoes pace pavement<\/p>\n
I yearn to hear the birdsong
\nof staccato honks of cars
\nand half-heard conversations
\nof drunks
\npercussion in the clack of billiard balls
\nin bars
\nwith just a hint of danger inside
\nand out<\/p>\n
I pine not always for swishing branhces
\nbut for the strange quiet
\nof the late night diner
\nThe clink of dishes behind
\nthe swinging door
\nand the labored breath
\nof the sleepless staff<\/p>\n
I’m not a tourist here
\nor anywhere
\nbut I can sense my belonging
\nin this throng
\nof pressing bodies
\nsweating booze
\nbreathing smoke
\nsquinting under neon<\/p>\n
and my chest rises and falls
\nwith the whoosh
\nof each car
\nspeeding through a red light<\/p>\n
And the lake hugs it all
\nIt is different
\nand the same
\nand for now
\nit can wait for me<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’ve seen the lake, I said and sighed It is different and the same The waves do not compete here with the voices who would capture them compress them down into bites and bytes and Alexa-play-soothing-sounds-of-the-seas Solitude has its place and silence its time but the chimes of my friends laughing the solace of a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p73iP8-Ov","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3131"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3131"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3137,"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3131\/revisions\/3137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}