I listen to your name I say out loud and
For a moment, the house is not empty.
Your name strides through its rooms,
Declaring your love, “yes” and “yes” and “of course.”
It wavers along the grains of the floor.
It climbs the walls and plays with the moths in the curtains.
It flutters up the stairs to higher ground,
then the window by the basswood tree.
Your name escapes me.
You are a thought lovely as a bird