For Mariane

There once was a small girl who had a voice as big as the sky.
When she sang the birds danced,
and when she spoke the clouds agreed.
She knew many things.

There once was a small boy who had no voice at all.
his outsides felt teeny,
his insides too tall.
He would hide behind grass blades,
and sneak behind snails...
Until one fateful day,
Intersect,
Did their trails.

She pointed at his thumb bone.
Pronouncing, "You are gifted and strong!"
He laughed and caught a sound so foreign that it caused him alarm.
Shaking his head furiously she abruptly explained,
"You're a drummer. A magician of sound.
Inside you lies a rhythm that has no limit or bound."

He closed his small eyes and let out a deep sigh and began slightly tapping on the top of his thigh.
"Do you feel that tremble?", the girl exclaimed "Keep going!"
So he did.
Stronger, again just the same.
But this time he added a cymbal on his knee, while tapping his toe on the root of a tree.
Startling a bird,
Sound asleep up so high-
The beat of one boy was heard up all through the sky.

And the girl danced to the rhythm,
Now not saying a word.
She had seen in him all that he needed,
To simply be heard.