quieting

Friday, and I am the only one making sounds in here.  Stirring my coffee, rustling the paper.  Occasionally speaking aloud to myself.  From outside, other sounds accentuate the stillness: soft sweeps from the parkway, a barking dog, the distant thump of G-20 helicopters.  No work today and I slept in.  Awoke to stillness.  Silence.  There is a vacuum inside me, similar to the dialed down level of ambient sound around me.  Emptiness pulls the outside in -- but the outside is muted too.  I think of dust, almost imperceptibly accumulating on surfaces.  Perhaps some chores, and cleaning, will pull my thoughts away from this quieting.  I am very lonely.