03 2017 poetry marathon prompt: photo of derelict building in high desert, snow and tumbleweeds.<\/p>\n
Once I Was a Home
\nby Paul Robert Sanford<\/p>\n
I’m not from around here.
\nAll there is to build with here is sandy dirt and scrub brush.
\nEvery board and nail and roll of tar paper had to be trucked in
\nso I could stand out in the sere landscape,
\na monument to civilization and comfort.<\/p>\n
I know who lived here.
\nThey had coffee in the morning and sometimes raised their eyes to gaze at the mountains.
\nNot a lot to do here but mountain gazing and walks under the open sky.
\nThat’s okay. I was shelter for a quiet life.<\/p>\n
Not that there wasn’t always something to putter around and take care of.
\nThe fine grit swept in with the wind and on shoes and had to be swept out.
\nWind blew the tar paper loose and it had to be tacked back in place.
\nThe roof was too flat to shed all the snow, and once in a few years needed to be shoveled off.<\/p>\n
Eventually the last house before the miles before the mountains
\nis a hard place to live in,
\nespecially when you are alone and older.
\nThe winters seem colder,
\nand the garbage molders before being carted out.
\nthe place gets a lived in feel, surrounded by half mended projects,
\nwindows begin to stick open or shut,
\ncoffee doesn’t satisfy as well.<\/p>\n
I remember an illness, an injury, a time laid up in bed,
\nwhen anxious kin folks rolled up on off road vehicles,
\nnotified by the local storekeeper that it had been a long time since.
\nArguments, sulking, demands and refusals.
\nCycles of negotiations and calm followed by alarms and visits.<\/p>\n
Sooner or later a person lacks the strength to keep the place up.
\nSooner of later a person lacks the strength to argue or fight back.
\nThe lowlanders win and I am empty and alone.<\/p>\n
My only visitors stay long enough to bust out windows and throw trash about.
\nSoon enough I offer very little shelter beyond a bit of shade,
\nperhaps a windbreak if the wind comes from the right direction.<\/p>\n
Once I was a home, but that time is forgotten now.
\nIf it weren’t so much trouble, the lowlanders would probably tear me down.
\nDon’t worry, give me enough years and I will fall.
\nI don’t want to return where I came from.
\nI am home to stay. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
03 2017 poetry marathon prompt: photo of derelict building in high desert, snow and tumbleweeds. Once I Was a Home by Paul Robert Sanford I’m not from around here. All there is to build with here is sandy dirt and scrub brush. Every board and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":736,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/736"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32728"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32960,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32728\/revisions\/32960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}