Member Poem

“Paper walls!” he cries from bed
at faceless voices speaking.
Humming, the mosquito flies again,
ducking through his moans.
He lifts his head to test the night,
and curse the Man upstairs.
 
“Paper walls!” barks a man upstairs;
she hears as she returns to bed.
Her sister cannot sleep this night,
she claims the walls are speaking.
Soon again her sister moans;
but she sighs and shuts the door again.
 
At the end of endless things again,
they hear the noise upstairs.
The cries and creaks; those sordid moans,
forgotten by their bed.
It’s the paper walls with whom they’re speaking;
shrieking deep into the night.
 
They work all day and sleep all night;
ah, here they are again:
far too tired for speaking,
and the kids are sleeping upstairs…
Pray this night they stay in bed
lest they see why mother moans.
 
Cheering on the sordid moans
they drink and dance and dare the night.
There are strangers sleeping in their bed,
crying out for God again.
They dismiss the paper walls upstairs,
unaware that they are speaking.
 
He can hear that girl is speaking
to herself amidst her moans.
Tomorrow he’ll go right upstairs,
to never brave another night…
On wrinkled sheets he breaths again,
and throws the pillow from his bed.
 
Speaking sadly to the night
she hears her sister’s moans again;
upstairs – an empty bed.