Reconciliation

The muzzled monster growled within
The set of bones containing him,

And then he stopped. Was it silence,
Then? No, not quite, not exactly—

A distant cousin, closing in.
It wasn’t so much he gave up

Or stopped because, well, what’s the point?
It felt like the time for growling,

Muzzled or unmuzzled, captive
Or free, was over, finished, done.

The monster reconciled with wait
To listen for quiet’s cousin.