They Sing in the Dark         

by Angela Hoffman


It’s crickets in the house, but I wear you down,
and you tell me you are weary, that there’s no room for joy,
to just expect that you will withdraw to that place you go
with all that life demands of you. You say it is just the way
things are, there is no fixing, but I say hell 
is lived here and now, and heaven too, 
and I know a bit about putting one foot in front of the other,
that by being brave you learn to brave, 
that if you open just a crack, something will erupt from you. 
Did you hear the crickets last night with their song sweet enough
to make the night weep? 


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Angela Hoffman’s poetry collections include Resurrection Lily and Olly Olly Oxen Free (Kelsay Books). Her work has been widely published. She writes a poem a day. Angela lives in Wisconsin.