DAY - INSIDE OUTSIDE

 Inside Outside

In this neighborhood,

folks tend to stay inside

on dark winter evenings.

 

They eat hamburger casserole,

then she wipes down cracked linoleum

counters and he watches mind-numbing TV.

 

At exactly ten o'clock, she lets the dog in,

he checks the locks on all the doors

and together they climb the stairs.

 

They fall immediately into dreamless slumber,

while old family photos mutter

from their frames in the hall.

 

Outside, a heavy hush fills the empty streets

as night unrolls over the city

like a bolt of thick, black flannel.

 

The piece describes a life where, in order to cope with a harsh, cold world, people have created a perfectly ordered, monotonous routine that keeps them safe but also deeply isolated and disconnected.