Mute Inflections

Mute Inflections
by Vivian Gilbert Zabel

Silent laughters fill the walls
Bringing tears to eyes still dry,
Gone the presence of childish prattle
Leaving echoes gathering dust.

Vacant murmurs whisper loudly
While ears strain refrains to hear,
Distressed that gone the source
Since silence stills the former din.

Clamor, clatter reverberate soundlessly
Against noiseless, endless calm
As a breath of crying, faintly sighing,
Peals softly across distant years.

Nonexistent children playing vainly
In a timeless void once known,
A heart, a soul remembers hauntingly
Those now grown, now gone from home.