HOUSE IS AN EMBARRASSMENT
House was not built to keep
your secrets. House angles
each window to its neighbor’s
windows for the perfect scenic
view of you and your body wrapped
in that towel with holes in it
that never quite reaches all the way
around. House lets you walk all
the way to the dryer to dry the pants
you forgot, for the seventh month,
to iron. House is generous. House
shares. House won’t hide
your wet footprints. House knows
you touched your feet and then
your mouth, and House knows
that once while watching the 10:00 news
you tried to stretch your foot to reach
your mouth. House is polite. House
isn’t saying a word. House is the one
you can feel watching as you walk
inside its rooms when it displays
its collection of nights. And when
you wake with a voice inside you
that becomes a scream outside you,
House knows without doubt that it’s
yours. House knows more than you do
it’s you. House was built to last
and House will outlast you.
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EMMA BOLDEN is the author of Maleficae, a book-length series of poems about the witch trials published by GenPop Books. She has also published three chapbooks of poetry: How to Recognize a Lady (part of Edge by Edge, in Toadlily Press’ Quartet Series), The Mariner’s Wife (Finishing Line Press), and The Sad Epistles (Dancing Girl Press). She is an assistant professor of creative writing at Georgia Southern University and she blogs at A Century of Nerve
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