Kit Kelen #1418 - underwriting

1418

underwriting

most of your houses won’t burn down

how long until there is intention?

some fall

and some are blown away

meaning

some are eaten

first sculpted by ants

light thrown down

again, again

would sinners lift their eyes to it

here’s age

and all the parts replaced –

the members of a house

a lounge of limbs

and lewd suggestions

not politely asked

most of your houses won’t burn down

but here’s a street alight

say alcohol has fuelled

all the violence of a home

won’t knock most houses down

were forest once

or mountain fast

have heft

are hewn

almost all change hands

or hand me down

let’s not forget flood

change of climate

continental drift

most houses won’t

some do

volcano and the quaking too

there’s electricity gathered

all fuels

what odds?

set actuaries on

many are so inhabited

one creature feeds upon the falling

some are simply bitten

plague till the place is condemned

a house may have been scrubbed to death

hoovered up and binned

wrapped in leaves

or a haunting dark

made dust

here’s fruit

say lemon gone bush

little wings attend

some were never on the map

or plan a subdivision

flat granny

little paws pass by

the guardian tree

and all the garden round

still there

say Sunday rubbernecks

ask how long will it stand

we’ve left it out in the weather

you memorize a shape – that’s it

rattles winded with the gate  

so secret to this having stood

and all these years to slam

there’s someone’s welcome in the walls

over we go

skitter

all the old ideas until

we’ve guessed home and here

think of a roof to catch

was someone else’s ground

forgive me

but I can’t go back

in moonlight

how the fires remind me

most houses won’t burn down

you room it

to contain an echo

walls divide the voice

come in out of

to the skin

and cosy up by

cup of it

much metabolized

long in digestion

taken for a smile

begins at a stretch

with a mouthful of nails

more hands and feet required