After several days of adjustment
We sit variously in the porch
Looking out here or there
And listen to the beating
Of each other’s lives
How this or that failure
Or disappointment
Or sleepless night
Or missing heartbeat
Confounds us confines us
How paths have disappeared
Disappointed distanced
And how we will soon
Return to those vanishing paths
Those mountains of dead ends
And maybe never dare to leave.
The silence in the porch
Is devastating
A bird swings on a twig
Lofts into brief flight
Disappears —
