by Gerri Leen
The house sang to you
Its listing on the MLS
Carefully making strengths out of
Eccentricities
You’d seen so many other houses
Known as soon as you crossed the threshold
They weren’t “it”
You stepped into this one
And felt at peace
Would you have moved on
If you’d realized
Peace can be the absence of all kinds of things
Not just chaos
Your health had never been great
You didn’t notice the house
Beginning to suck you dry
You felt safe inside it, even if you
Also felt horrible
Tired turned to exhausted
Small headaches turned to much worse
“Maybe it’s the house,” worried friends said
Thinking radon or mold or some other issue
Certainly not the truth
Was it you or the house that answered
“No, the house is perfect”?
It seems to have stopped
Tugging so hard at you
You hover closer to life than death
But not fully in either
Housebound and hearing finally
The voices of those who came before
“Welcome” was what you heard that
First zen day in the house
“Run” was what the others actually said
Spirit-to-carnal translators are tricky
Until you’re halfway there
Now they entertain you
“It’s a beautiful view,” the one called Maude says
“I’ve always loved the squirrels”
You think you should feed the squirrels
While you can still make it out of the door
The familiar lethargy takes over
Tomorrow, the house says
Tomorrow you can go to the bird store
Pick up seeds and a birdbath, too
It will let you out so you have
Amusements in the yard and no reason to leave
The house picks at your soul
Maude points at a fox
Upstairs you hear the others arguing
Over which room you’ll get
Once you’re dead
You close your eyes and nap
The house steals your dreams
GERRI LEEN is a Rhysling-nominated poet from Northern Virginia who’s into horse racing, tea, collecting encaustic art and raku pottery, and making weird one-pan meals. She has poetry published in Dreams & Nightmares, Songs of Eretz, Polu Texni, NewMyths.com, Neo-Opsis and others. She also writes fiction in many genres (as Gerri Leen for speculative and mainstream, and Kim Strattford for romance) and is a member of HWA and SFWA. Visit gerrileen.com to see what she’s been up to.