Those feet that used to stomp around
the house and take stairs up two three
at a time or down in a disassembling clatter
are elsewhere today this day of silences
of silences that sweep like an admonition
through the still rooms around the empty beds
the solitary chairs the dark tree in the corner
o we hear the cats occasionally patter down a carpeted hallway
it is not totally still now and then a plant drops a leaf
quite a clatter that
or a car booms by bass notes monotonous
but our adults have sprung forth
not to hear us breathe the day is silent
