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