A Crooked House

We lived in a crooked house. Built on a muddy mound of hope with the corpse of yesterday half buried beneath Sad eyes and smiley faces. A gilded countenance to pair the four walled fiction – Painted thin; only just enough to cover our cracks. Widening like morning eyes; a mirrored reflection. Dancing in a zigzag to the tune of the tremors. An ugly soundtrack coaxing ugly art. Those damp walls. The cracks swallowing torrents from eyes in the sky Wide eyed boys watching sliding droplets crashing into droplets. Swallowed like pride. Doors jammed in water seeped jambes. Knotted and gnarled. A need for a greave Trees weeping at what they witness from the outside looking in. Shedding leaves for tears. Oft trampled floor boards creaking and crying in solidarity with those that walk its back Whisper and scurry light-footed like mice in a hurry so easily scared by the wall breaching wind Trying hard not to wake the monster sleeping downstairs - Breath held like tongues, voices low Like the swing in the garden tied to the tired branch of the hunched tree. Seat sunk in mud. Ashamed. A tip toe down the slippery stairs; in fear of drowning in the basement swimming pool. A watery hell Festering in the bowels of this building ever since the burgeoning moat breached the ramparts of this faux castle. Lopsided family photo frames hanging by a thread. Nailed to crumbling walls. A slipping semblance of home. The rising cigarette smoke staining the walls like those words from the same pursed lips from the mind so hard to rid A cloudy plume with no silver lining; an excuse for eyes to water; blurring those family portraits. That poisoned smog escaping through the chimney. Blown out over spluttering trees aghast at what this house concealed. The wind once blew from the west. The house had many faces then but when the east wind struck its walls, the face it pulled it stuck. Doubled over, bent and crooked. The trees perished like dreams and time brought change But this crooked house remained the same.