Judith Waller Carroll

The Children Are Crying and a Dog’s at the Door

We have lived near the ocean,
at the foot of a mountain,
in the woods where a fox napped
outside our sunroom window, and now
this house we are sharing with our son and his family.
Five decades of belongings tucked tightly
into our small suite of rooms. Unpacked
boxes still waiting in the garage.
But the sun is out, the irises are blooming,
and here comes the baby saying Uh Oh,
the three-year old explaining how garbage trucks work.
Two purring cats massaging our legs,
a pair of disheveled dogs wagging their tails.
A burst of high notes coming from the bird cage:
the cockatiel’s version of Ode to Joy.

Judith Waller Carroll’s poems have been featured on Verse Daily and The Writer’s Almanac, published in numerous journals and anthologies, and nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. She is the author of two collections of poetry, Ordinary Splendor (MoonPath Press 2022) and What You Saw and Still Remember, a runner-up for the 2017 Main Street Rag Poetry Award. Her chapbook The Consolation of Roses, won the 2015 Astounding Beauty Ruffian Press Poetry Prize.