Quiet [Broadway]

[MATILDA]
Have you ever wondered
Well, I have
About how when I say, say, "red"
For example
There's no way of knowing
If red means the same thing in your head
As red means in my head
When someone says "red"

And how, if we are travelling at
Almost the speed of light
And we're holding a light
That light would still travel away from us
At the full speed of light
Which seems right
In a way
But I'm trying to say –

I'm not sure
But I wonder if inside my head
I'm not just a bit different from
Some of my friends
These answers that come into my mind, unbidden;
These stories delivered to me fully-written

And when everyone shouts
Like they seem to like shouting
The noise in my head is incredibly loud
And I just wish they'd stop
My dad and my mum
And the telly
And stories would stop for just once

And I'm sorry
But I'm not quite explaining it right
But this noise becomes anger
And the anger is light
And this burning inside me would usually fade
But it isn't today
And the heat and the shouting –
And my heart is pounding –
And my eyes are burning –
And suddenly, everything, everything is –

Quiet
Like silence, but not really silent
Just that still sort of
Quiet
Like the sound of a page being turned in a book
Or a pause in a walk in the woods

Quiet
Like silence, but not really silent
Just that nice kind of
Quiet
Like the sound when you lie upside-down in your bed
Just the sound of your heart in your head

And though the people around me –
Their mouths are still moving –
The words they are forming
Cannot reach me anymore

And it is quiet
And I am warm
Like I've sailed –
Into the eye of the storm