Every now and then,

we should hear the coffee mug clank

as we set it back down on the

glass tabletop,

because there is nothing

to distract us

from

its

presence.

We should listen

for the creaking beams

of an old house,

whose bones ache with a kind of

architectural osteoporosis.

We should listen for her groans

because they remind us

that

history

lives.

part-fig3