entr'acte

Today there is nothing.

So many days

I have yearned for a break

and now here it is.

All the days running up to this were filled

With babies and feedings and walks and books and legos.

With children and bikes and soccer games and lessons and camping.

With teenagers and angst and driving and girlfriends and late nights.

And then they were gone.

It is quiet.

I hear the dishwasher whir in the other room

There is a faint ringing in my ears.

Or are those echoes

of laughter, of fighting, of family

Not since my first pregnancy,

have known this silence.

A silence, full of expectation.

This pause is not pregnant

But there is something undetermined there.

Just a whisper in the air

But for now, I embrace this nothing.