Run your hands along the surface, she says,
Feel how cool the marble is beneath your fingertips.
This man has not heard anyones voice in so long,
No visitors, no tourists, no bird watchers either.
This’ll relax you, she said,
This’ll you keep you from worrying.
Silence and tranquility is good for that
And it has done well for this statue, alone on the coast,
Still as crisp and clean and pure since 1982.
We can’t hear the cars on the motorway.
We can’t even hear the cows.