To Listen or to Speak

You know that scripture in D&C 128: 23? About rocks and valleys and the moon speaking?  I've always wanted to talk to old houses and hear their stories. The house in New York is over a hundred years old, and growing up I would sometimes sit on quiet afternoons listening to its creaks. I would swear it was speaking and was always disappointed that I couldn't understand what it was saying. Anyways, once I visited an old, listening house which contrastingly housed a Jewish grandmother who spoke but never listened. That visit gave the basic material for this poem. 

Oh yes - and since people always ask. A Trappist is a Catholic order of monks who keep a vow of silence. A Jew is obviously the opposite religiously of a Catholic, not to mention that Jews are known for speaking :) (It's true; I'm related to a few...) So a Trappist changed to Jew would be a change not only of religion, but of personality: from listening to speaking.    

To Listen or to Speak

If papered walls were fleshed in blood and skin,
Or lips of wood opened with a creak,
If words were drawn from years within,
What years of wisdom would they speak?

After seeing all leave with unease,
Eighty years of thinning brick worn through
With ringing words of expertise,
Would Trappist choose to change to Jew?

The day of thanks brings all to Gramma’s home.
Her slicing speech answers not a one,
Painted lips of flesh, yet diamond ears of stone.
We all leave before dinner’s done.

Fading hair crimped tight; rotting wall reeks.
Sharing eighty years; one listens, one speaks.