A Comfortable Silence

I lay next to my father for the first time since I was a child
and together we looked up at the sky through the branches from where we lay.
I could hear the birds, a distant siren,
The wind.
We were peaceful here side by side
There was no need to talk, no words needed to be said.
I wondered if he remembered me.

I looked to the branches dancing above my head
The leaves turning colour, falling,
settling upon us both.
And yet I still did not move.
We both were still.

The cold hit me from both above as well as the ground below
as I inhaled the fresh damp smell of the earth,
adjusting myself over the broken cases of conkers that had fallen.
A recent rain.

A bird settled in the tree above us.
Now there were two. They spoke more than we.
I felt the cold but he did not stir.

The only sound was of my eyes watering the ground where he lay.
I looked over and kissed him for the first time since that day.
All I could taste was the earth.
I'll come again.
Maybe next time we'll lay again once more in a comfortable silence.