She’s known for registering surprise.

Though she does it mainly with volume,
the occasional lilt,

it is why her children love her,
why the dog answers only to her.

The neighbors, at first annoyed,
soon learn to think of opera.

Next door, reading a book or swatting flies,
her arias lift them out of their thoughts

suddenly, all at once, Zowie, Look!,
unexpectedly out of the blue her loud

and infinite wondrous world.

– Laura Lee Washburn