Alternate Ending

Alternate Ending

Then just when you thought it might go on

like this forever, that pitter-patter 

all but fading into the white noise of the living 

room, the world will of a sudden cease

its incessant circling around this fraying corner  

of the universe, not with a screech

or bone-melting burst of flame but with the soft 

groan of one who has finally found

their place. All the same, we will look up, then,

from our various busyness of being here,

hands raw and chapped from our attempts

to scrub clean this unending pile

of reasons for it all, and something more 

than the soft flap of our ears will flutter

in recognition, perking as if—at a register 

previously inaccessible to us—our names 

are being called.