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