Highway Lullaby

Silence makes a sound
don’t you think?
Sometimes I can’t sleep
because the silence is so loud.
There is something about the nothing,
the absolute emptiness of a place
like walking through a forest on a snowy night.
Silence scares me.
I grew up in town
close to the highway
and the constant hum of tires on tar
has sung me to sleep the past 15 years.
Sometimes we go to a farm
in New Hampshire.
It’s beautiful
and I treasure my time there.
But I have a hard time sleeping.
It is just
so
so
so
quiet,
yet, so
so
so
loud.
Silence has a sound
don’t you think?
Hunter Towne is 15 years old; she lives in Freeport, Maine.