The house is so quiet now
The vacuum cleaner sulks in the corner closet,
Its bag limp as a stopped lung, its mouth
Grinning into the floor, maybe at my
Slovenly life, my dog-dead youth.
I-ve lived this way long enough,
But when my old woman died her soul
Went into that vacuum cleaner, and I can-t bear
To see the bag swell like a belly, eating the dust
And the woolen mice, and begin to howl
Because there is old filth everywhere
She used to crawl, in the corner and under the stair.
I know now how life is cheap as dirt,
And still the hungry, angry heart
Hangs on and howls, biting at air.
The Vacuum
Howard Nemerov
(3)
Poem topics: dog, heart, house, howl, woman, soul, long, mouth, angry, dust, floor, quiet, hungry, cheap, youth, life, corner, Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
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