Empty Bedrooms

I walk past empty bedrooms that once held my boys The beds made so perfect, the absence of noise Books there on the book shelf and not upon the floor No ear-splitting music, no slamming the door It’s eerily quiet now these once busy dens These bunkers of bustle with brothers and friends They’re off to college now the closets are clean They only come home now on days in between The weeks of the study the homework and toil With loads of their laundry all dirty with soil These nice empty bedrooms so tidy and neat Just aren’t the same in their pristine retreat As when the sneakers are thrown in a corner The fridge it is drained like an unwilling donor The noise and the smell of exercised teens Showing off muscles with biceps and spleens Banging a cupboard while toasting some bread At three in the morning before heading to bed Now some dorm at the coast, in some far away place Or corner of frat-house who’s presence they grace Our bedrooms are empty the rooms nice and quiet The sheets all in place and the fridge on a diet But once in a while it all comes to life Things they are back to the brotherly strife Rooms not so tidy and sharp as a knife As when we’re alone…just me and my wife David Kettler