At the candlelight vigil, Sarah CR Clark, who was a neighbor of the Brasel family for 13 years, shared her poem “Song of our neighbors.” She dedicated the poem to “all of my neighbors” but especially Brasel’s wife Hilary and sons Oliver and Miles.
“Song of our neighbors”
thwack! thwack!
the song of our neighbors rang out
for at least two winters
before I recognized
thwack! thwack!
the sound of hockey sticks
slapping icy pucks into
thwack! thwack!
backyard goals, glowing
under strings of lights
percussion warming the winter
thwack! thwack!
down the block in summer
dinner drifting through screen-
windows beckons, a piano
practice serenades the street,
so we step from our kitchens, outside
to be nearer the crickets
the moon and one another
thwack! thwack!
here, we are more than house numbers
street names yard signs blaring
we are our kids on scooters
thwack! thwack!
we are the dogwoods, lilacs, crabapples
we are those walks to Speedy Market
we are kringler, wild coyotes
thwack! thwack!
we are Cooper’s hawks crying, and
even the ridiculous turkeys
tonight we are a 2009 orange dodge challenger
without a driver
…
and we feel it, the breath-holding we
do when one of us is missing
…
that rending silence
deafening
…
in our longings for harmony
for neighbors
for a heartbeat
thwack! thwack!
thwack! thwack!
do you hear it?
echoing off your house and mine,
in here?
thwack! thwack!
singing out
we belong to each other
we belong to each other
