Song without words

 

 

Susan Macdowell Eakins "Portrait of Mary
& Elizabeth Macdowell" (detail) 1879

Song without words

We sit together

side by side

while evening thickens

around us

Let the toil

of the day
flow out of us
with gladness

And the edges

of what we believe

to be

soften and drift

All this you know

Without I speak

We sit together

side by side

I gaze at

your industry

You, the indigo

that bleeds the dark

The hush

that summons sleep

The yolk opening

in the silver cup of night

The carded nap

before the fulling

All this you know

Without I speak