From Your House

Winter, 2020–21 / No. 46

From your house, right now

you can’t see me, strange as this

may sound to a casual observer,

but you can’t.

How some nights you call me

on the telephone to tell me

that: from down in the valley,

looking up on the mountain,

you can see a faint blush of the 

otherwise blackened silhouette 

through the trees, which

burns in my bedroom window:

and you knew I was home.

Well, darling, tonight 

you won’t. There is a cloud 

descended, and she’s smothered

everything, even the smoke

from the chimney sinks toward

the ground—the birds, too, 

don’t know what to make of it.

I just thought 

I should let you know. 

Andrew Lafleche is the editor of Gravitas. His most recent books are One Hundred Little Victories, Eyes Wide, and Ride. Last updated winter, 2020–2021.