Random Acts of Poetry

The Empty Room

You screamed the whole night when we brought you home
Your ear-splitting wails, they rattled my bones.
Downstairs, a neighbor pounded on the ceiling
“C’mon, get that baby to sleep, will you?”

Then a toddler with some bumping and bruising
Knocking knick knacks while crawling and cruising
Soon the padding of stockinged feet in the hall
The pen scratched each year’s height into the wall

The giggling of girls' secrets on the phone
About boys and shopping, my, how you’d grown!
But the phone barely rang once you were gone
Then only text beeps from your college dorm

The wallpaper flowers silently bloom
and memories echo in your empty room.



Task Prompt:
Write a poem where each line is quieter than the last.