Maxine Rose Munro 
Eaglesham (Glasgow, Scotland) 
 
Maxine Rose Munro writes in both English and her native Shetlandic Scots. She is widely published, both in print and online, including The Poetry Kit’s Caught in the Net 171. Her work has been nominated for The Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. Find her here www.maxinerosemunro.com 

 
Poem completed on 2nd June 2020
 
 

It was 

 
the silence of big things, that's what it was. 
Not the small things, they chattered away 
endlessly. Through open windows, over 
gardens hedges, came those sounds 
of people with new found enthusiasms 
going at it hammer and tongs, set to 
better their wee bit of a broken world. 
And everywhere you could care to listen 
there were words and more words, people 
talking talking talking, just to halt the silence 
creeping under the surface. Hands itched 
from all that sanitiser. Yet it was the silence 
of big things – that was what hurt the most.