HE SINGS BECAUSE HIS WIFE HAS GONE OUT OF THE HOUSE

by: Vincent O'Sullivan (1868?-1940)

E sings because his wife has gone out of the house:

Bending over the table in the twilight of the room

He sings soft old things he sang when he was a boy,

And near his chair stays listening a grey mouse.

 

He sings because the gay loud woman is out in the town,

And in his heart there is a quiet, and the room is so still

That the grey mouse preens its whiskers far away from the wall,

For the man's voice is dreamy and kind like those who are very ill.

 

And he wonders if some day his wife will go out of the house

And leave him alone with the mouse, too still to feel more

Than the waves and the waves of quiet in the darkened room,

As he lies with the sun on his face through a chink in the door.