Noisy silence

          Silence put lips to the house

          and breathed into ears

          alert before dawn

Air hummed 

with the purring of lungs         

Walls replayed the hours

          when weighted silk 

          wrapped eyelids

          in the noise and heat

                    ***

Words travelled warm sheets

and touched, before breath

was drawn away

          Children shifted

                                   sweaty heads

          when a blackbird

                                   warned

          of bitter day