Since our lives were complicated By outside reason Our house has been loud with voices We pulled the bits out of our mouths And now we will never put them back And our house has never been quiet And our house has never been neat A scream has always followed a scream Like the roll of waves and the sea is never still But for the first time in years I sit alone on the swept floor Of a silent room And the cold winter wind rushes through our house Through windows flung open to let in more breathable air But it makes me think only of my warm spot halfway up the stairs That I was too afraid to go to when I heard the cold coming Now a scream echoes without a scream And my heat is lost to a room With nothing to hold it