I Know Some Lonely Houses by Emily Dickinson

I know some lonely Houses off the Road
A Robber’d like the look of –
Wooden barred,
And Windows hanging low,
Inviting to –
A Portico,
Where two could creep –
One – hand the Tools –
The other peep –
To make sure All’s Asleep –
Old fashioned eyes –
Not easy to surprise! 

How orderly the Kitchen’d look, by night,
With just a Clock –
But they could gag the Tick –
And Mice won’t bark –
And so the Walls – don’t tell –
None – will – 

A pair of Spectacles ajar just stir –
An Almanac’s aware –
Was it the Mat – winked,
Or a Nervous Star?
The Moon – slides down the stair,
To see who’s there! 

There’s plunder – where –
Tankard, or Spoon –
Earring – or Stone –
A Watch – Some Ancient Brooch
To match the Grandmama –
Staid sleeping – there – 

Day – tattles – too
Stealth’s – slow –
The Sun has got as far
As the third Sycamore –
Screams Chanticleer
“Who’s there”? 

And Echoes – Trains away,
Sneer- “Where”!
While the old Couple, just astir,
Fancy the Sunrise – left the door ajar!

 

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The Library by Dennis Lange

The fearless, fair-haired youth go racing by
To beat the sun with their eternal play;
Ignoring all the volumes as they sit
On shelves, made dusty by the ancient day.

But if they pause to look within the door,
Tis brief, for volumes do not speak with rap,
Nor beer commercials with seductiveness.
Instead, they stand or lean, and seem to nap.

Philosophy and history there dwell
As tenants, with a monthly rent long paid
By labor in the decades of the past,
And speak of Time, not black, or white, but grayed.

A smattering of math and arts reside
By politics in its disgraceful cave.
A button brings the turning of a tune –
A play-by-play of athletes in the grave.

Outranking all the facts that dwell within
Is Wisdom, treasured for her pillared strength,
Who, in the living of the testing years,
Spread through the books to fill the width and length.

She lives in leathered lexicons and tracts,
Anthologies of age, experience,
In almanacs beneath the thinning hair
Beside her sacred sister – Common Sense.

Youth shudder at the shaking in a hand;
They wince at wrinkles, see the years as gloom.
They view the silver hair like cobwebs.  Flee!
The tomes of wisdom are too near the tomb.

Library and librarian – the same –
He shuffles down the lane the young ones fly.
Their laughter sounds, as though the race was won,
But they, as yet, have no discerning eye.

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© Dennis Lange and thebardonthehill.wordpress.com, 2011.

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