IF A TREE FALLS IN THE FOREST DOES IT MAKE A SOUND?

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This is one of those questions that is beyond comprehension, a question we all have opinions about, but without anyway to prove it remains unsolved. For many it is hard to accept that there is no definitive answer; in fact, it is like so many other imponderable questions we store in our minds. Is there a God? Is there life after death? It would certainly be nice to know all the answers, but then were would the mystery be?

My poem One Thing approaches this idea of knowing , but it looks at it from an unusual point of view. Do you remember the movie Rainman? about a savant (a person with developmental disabilities who has one profound skill that most normal people do not.) It might be a mathematical skill like the Rainman's or more often it is musical. For my poem I thought it would be interesting if the skill was spiritual, a person who could understand the imponderable.

In the Eye of the Storm

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One Thing

In a wall-papered room a savant,
head tilted like Stevie Wonder,
understands God. His father

fries eggs in a cast iron pan,
calls him to breakfast with words
that shake up the dust in a deep
and more narrowing hallway.

Outside the sky is enraged,
a bully pushing down
trees in a forest.

Unable to speak the boy slides
his mouth on the window. He knows
as they fall, God will be silent.

note: One Thing first appeared as an editor's choice on the front page of Poetry Circle.
CLICK HERE if you would like to see it there.