Breathing

There is an absolute quiet
in this house—as if the walls
were hugging the extremities
of their own darkness

One creak of the furnace
touches this silence
measuring the small
circle of blue
lining the perimeter
of this room

Settling back into my
special world of hushed
waiting, I know there are no
areas I’ve not touched
at some point in my life

The swelling of the brain
the shrinking of the heart—
all are familiar territory:
the explorer who has reached
the last frontier of time
of space
a path of no
return

 

Pinkie Gordon Lane
from her book Girl at the Window
Louisiana State University Press, 1991

reprinted with special permission from LSU Press

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