-populating the interior-

               It was the rarest of moments

               entering an empty “house” at 1017.

               father’s working his drive through the eastern route.

               mother’s visiting a friend and who knows who?

               grandmother and grandfather are seen

               walking beyond left field toward the church
               for yet another funeral.

               it’s the time in life when they’re dropping like flies.

               my sister’s expected home from spending time
               at the "house" of the fascinating Edwina Mello

               and my brother’s temporarily ensconced in the dark,
               North End of town accompanied by the little lunatic
               who goes by the name: Douglas "Dougie” Bear.

               but here, there’s nothing to look into.

               there’s little if anything to make my own.
               the bedroom doors are open to rooms of fading mysteries.

               the closed dresser drawers are of little to no interest;

               I’ve seen the insides of them; the dry,
               tangled guts of common cloth.

               the sink and gas stove look dead.
               linoleum looks to peel away at the corners by the sheer force of nature.

               my friends are cloistered inside their own “houses”
               which form a perfect circle around the nucleus of the world.

               there’s a note on the kitchen table left there for my sister,
               written in our young mother's delicate hand:

               “Janice,

               I'll be back soon.

               tell Billy to stay in the house”.

               I’m the only one in the “house” left standing to read the note

               and I’m the only one singled-out by name to "stay in the “house”.

              from the first floor tenement, called the "house" /  1954