Sharon thanks -a good morning for snaps here!! One line I felt did not fit
(for me) was ' opera-singing mice'  
Cheers P old grmp!
Ps web obsessed spiders I read as internet web _thought good-then wondered
maybe they were internetting?

-----Original Message-----
From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of sharon brogan
Sent: 07 July 2009 18:17
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: snap 2 - This Old House

This Old House

This is a house of many rooms. Small
rooms, stuffed with large things; large
rooms, cluttered with trivia. Over-sized
bureaus and under-sized beds.

The boundary is guarded with razor wire.
It sparkles in the sun. Then the moat,
deep and dark, flashing with goldfish and koi.
Harmless beasts patrol the grounds.

The windows are mirrored on the outside,
shuttered on the in. At the parapet,
telescopes and binoculars, lawn chairs
beneath striped umbrellas.

There are no monsters behind the bedskirts.
They live under the floorboards, with the
opera-singing mice and web-obsessed spiders.
The walls are buzzing with bees.

In the attic, vintage toys and modern novels.
In the cellar, shell-framed mirrors and
wind-up robots; antique televisions with
shattered screens; bowls of scentless petals.

There is a room for the badgers, with their
sharp teeth and purple gums; and another
for the feral cats. Here is the room of old lovers,
forever young, forever rehearsing their lines.

Books are piled on every floor; art layers
every wall. In the music room, Bach plays
chess with Ani DiFranco. K.D. Lang is dancing
the tango with Philip Glass.

Here is the hall of file cabinets. Drawers
hang open, overflowing with lurid documents,
spike-heeled shoes, scandalous photographs,
broken china, diaries written in invisible ink.

This house is a labyrinth, a maze. Long dim
hallways, twisting corridors, hidden doors
and camouflaged, impenetrable chambers.
Do not enter. There is no exit.

At the top of the house, the gardens: desert,
tropics, alpine, rain forest. Coastal, filled with
wind and salt. Great arched skylights, wide
open views to the indifferent universe.



--

sharon brogan

http://www.sbpoet.com
http://www.sbpoet.net
http://smallpoems.sbpoet.net
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