SONGS IN THE NIGHT

On cold winter Sunday nights
the week ended or perhaps began
with my parents singing.
Mother played the piano as they sang.
Self-taught, she cheated a bit
on the alto and tenor lines but
not the bass which Dad sang to
accompany her soprano. Old songs
mostly: Study War No More and
Old Kentucky Home but mostly the hymns
we sang at church. Sent to bed,
my sister and I were ushered to sleep
with What a Friend We Have in Jesus
and We'll Understand It All By and By.
Worries about school the next day
and whether the Russians would drop
the Bomb surrendered to the two part
harmony coming from downstairs where
two people who loved each other
and us sang their songs into the night.