Suddenly the House Went Dark

And though we flipped all the switches, tested 
breakers in the basement, phoned and 
phoned, Nothing. When the big boys 
turn off your power, it’s gone. Our house dark 
then, as the inside of a shut refrigerator. 
Our red walls purpling until they seemed 
to emit cries like a ringing telephone.

Now we stumble around the house 
in the frigid black, feeling our way from room 
to room, marveling that we recognize so little. 
No keyboard works except the piano. 
But music? —is over and done with.

I rummage for paper and pencil, thinking I will 
scribble this poem the old way, trying to remember 
how. Around me, rooms from my past 
houses switch places with one another. I meet 
my old self walking down the hall. Our yard 
has blinked out, gone now from all our windows. 
What if the whole city goes black? What if 
dark extinguishes the sun? What if God pulls 
some big plug for good? What will we believe in? 
In what dark house will we live?