Isolation

By Diana Becket

Silence is heavy in the living space. 
She speaks aloud and jumps 
to hear her voice in an empty 
room lit by sunlight filtered through blinds 
thick with dust and grease. Mottled 
shadows merge the outline 
of the stairwell and throw 
patterns over photos of people 
she once knew, no longer remembers names, 
but sometimes hears echoes of arguments, 
important for another time and place. She spilled 
soup last night on cushions 
her mother patched—wiped 
the cotton pieces, but the stain has congealed. 
She falls asleep as the sun begins 
to set, dreams jolt her awake, waits 
a while then begins to search 
kitchen cupboards.

Diana Becket was born in Manchester, England, and lived in the Netherlands before moving to Ohio. She began to write poetry when she retired from teaching composition courses.  Her poems have been published in Muddy River Poetry Review, The Cape Rock, and the anthology, I Thought I Heard a Cardinal Sing.