The wind forgets to howl and the earth forgets to spin. From motionless leaftips and seedheads, from pacified shorelines, from breathless throats, emerges a depth of silence. Clouds dissolve like cotton candy in a child's mouth, baring a web of rainbows. Birds float on frozen wings, downward, like shed leaves. Ten thousand soft bodies settle soundlessly upon beds of stone or sand, or upon pillows of grass or foliage or pine needles, or duvets of snow, and close their eyes. Ten thousand souls depart for peaceful oblivion.