Note: This poem was lightly edited March 10, 2025.

4 AM
July 17, 2019

The stupid smoke detectors
Beep

Incessantly
There are two of them
Running this conversation
With each other
Through the night

Their batteries dying
Or dead

Funnily enough
They fall silent
During the day
Lull you into thinking
It is ok
It was just a glitch

But as night falls
And you walk around the house
Switching off lights
Doing the routine
You hear them start

First it is one
Then the second joins in
Soon after

Reaching out to the other
Across the darkness

Their batteries dying
Or dead.