This house Is a bargain.
It is built on a glacier
The walls are made of cannon balls.
The roofing material is guaranteed
Until tomorrow.
The rooms are always shifting
As are the halls
So the ground plan is always changing.
You might get up at night to pee
And think you are entering the bathroom
But you are on the top step.
Or the bottom step.
The deck is quite sizeable
And detachable.
(Full disclosure: Something lives underneath it.
But it only comes out late at night.)
There are solar panels
That pay for the charger
Of the electric car
That you will want to order.
The lawn is included.
The dandelions are included.
The hummingbird is optional.
The bridge to the future,
Starting in the backyard,
Comes with the property.
It is a facsimile of
The bridge of San Luis Ray.
The front door is a prop
Very welcoming.
Guests can see how there is a path
Around the side.
When they follow the path
They will come full circle
And will generally go home.
................
This is a poem depicting the way it feels to me to live in the world of today. Even my home doesn't feel stable, but as if it is built on a glacier. I have a friend who actually experienced getting up to pee, but when he thought he was turning into the bathroom he found himself stepping into the stairwell. The part about the door being a prop reflects the actual situation in VT where people don't use their front door because it lets in the cold. The real entrance is a side or back door opening into the "mudroom". (The closest room to the mudroom is usually the kitchen. The living room in many Vermont homes is also kind of a prop.) The path that guides a guest around the house is just my fantasy of how I would protect my privacy if I were designing my Alice-in-Wonderland dream house. The "walls are made of cannonballs", is lifted from Robert Hunters song (and Grateful Dead hit), "Uncle John's Band".
(Article changed on May 12, 2022 at 11:09 AM EDT)
