Eternal God of Contingent Things

I awaken after midnight
to winter’s wolves howling
outside my window. As I pull
the blanket up under my chin

I can’t help but wonder
if a howl is still a howl
if no one like me is startled
out of sleep to hear it.

Of course, this remains
the age-old question
whether falling trees, like toddlers,
swallow their cries

if no one is present
with an attentive ear,
a caring embrace.
For what’s a noise

if its waves never break
on someone’s shore?
We live in a world afloat
with ears and eyes and hands

looking for an outlet, a connection
hot with electricity.
And when we find one
we hold on tight

as this merry-go-round world
spins about a sun which,
now hidden in the night,
will soon illumine this room.

Copyright © 2019 by AJ Saur, from Particles in Motion (Murmuration Press).