You yell beneath the floorboards.
Pounding fists, cracked promises lie in
Casual bricks dropping like tears that
Never mattered.

You cry beneath the floorboards
Of little red schoolhouses, tired tire marks that show
They’re not coming back and
You’re not going home.

You riot beneath the floorboards!
You shout and scream and rant but they
Cannot hear you anymore.
The stores are closing like a trap door.

You die beneath the floorboards
A death that was not peaceful but panicked
Like an elevator that has stopped moving
Briefly and indefinitely, you are gone.

Now we crawl beneath the floorboards
Searching for pieces of you like receipts
Stashed away in a pocket of an old coat.
You remind us of whispers and walruses and things.

And someday when we find ourselves, fierce
And fleeting, underneath the floorboards,
You will remind us of our fading voices forever
Silenced, but never ignored.