The house is silent, sad and dim,
And I am not allowed within.
Yet how I know each floorboard’s creak,
Each stair’s own crack, each door’s own squeak.
The house is silent, sad and dark.
Where lights once blazed, not one small spark.
And halls I used to wander through
Are bare and cold and lonely, too.
So look no more, just turn away,
The house is dark, you may not stay!
– From “Piper’s Song, A Book of Poems”