The careful house keeper

I have kept a careful House

Though all the Beams complain

And entertained the multitude

With artificially steady Flame

The Guests remark my Poise perhaps

The manner of the Tea

But none suspect the Ceiling shakes

With inland Catastrophe

There is behind the Parlor Wall

A Creature without Name

It feeds upon the Midnight Clock

And answers when I blame

By Morning I am sensible

A Meadow after Frost

Composed enough for passing Eyes

To never count the Cost

I carry other People’s Grief

Like Water in a Pail

While underneath the cellar floods

And all the Floorboards wail

Some Evenings Thought becomes a Horse

Unbroken by the Rein

It drags the Stars across my Mind

Until they bleed like Wine

I speak too fast The Windows bloom

The Air becomes too bright

As if the Lord struck every Match

At once against the Night

Then follows the peculiar Still

Of Orchards after Fire

A Silence large enough to drown

The very thing called Desire

And yet I dress the Table straight

Arrange the Lilacs tall

For Madness when domesticated

Looks nothing like it at all