from every room hearts spoke through walls too thin to hold

 the weight of what they heard

 so fires crept through spaces long left soft and blurred

 notes pushed under the doors

 frozen to the floor we believed everything

 leaves blown beneath the eaves

 whirring like a nest of wound-up starlings

 we were young

 we didn’t heed those things

 if birds were singing we were loved

 we were young

 like the universe

 like our mothers were

 like these words