The Storm Shelter

Lyrics

Past the sink in The Scullery, where the soap smells like lemons and winter.
Behind the leaning brooms, there's a part of the wall that isn't a wall.
My hand knows the loose board. My shoulder knows the width of the frame.
Down, into the dark that smells like stone.
The steps are steep. They only belong to me.
The cold air from The Root Cellar pushes past, a ghost sigh, whispering of apples and dirt.
But I don't turn left. I go right, to the iron latch that bites my fingers.

And the door breathes open. It doesn't creak.
The wind outside can scream its name, a monster made of air.
Down here, we are in the quiet belly of the house.
This isn't a hiding place.
This is the listening place.
This is where the story of the storm is told, and we are the only ones who hear it.

The bench is bolted down, so we can't float away.
That's what the quiet boy told me. He's here sometimes, sitting in the corner where the lantern can't find him.
He says in 1927, the wind learned to sing.
The water in the big metal barrel is black glass.
If you stare into it long enough, you see another lantern, in another room, inside this one.
A room inside a room, forever.
He and I, we share the crackers from the tin shelf. They taste like metal and waiting.

The wind outside screams its name, a monster made of air.
Down here, we are in the quiet belly of the house.
This isn't a hiding place.
This is the listening place.
This is where the story of the storm is told, and we are the only ones who hear it.

The man who smells of dirt and rain said they brought coal here, once.
For a storm that never came. That's the one I remember best.
The smell of the damp earth sings. It's a low, buzzing note you can feel in your teeth.
The silence after the imagined thunder was the heaviest color I know.
The quiet boy, he just nods. He remembers it too.

The monster gets tired.
The sky gets quiet.
The story is over for today.
I close the door, and it becomes a wall again.
The quiet boy stays behind. He keeps the silence safe.
He's still listening.