This house has many rooms. Small
rooms, stuffed with large things; large
rooms, cluttered with trivia. Over-sized
bureaus and under-sized beds.
Razor wire guards the boundary. 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.
No monsters hide behind the bedskirts.
They live under the floorboards, with the
operatic 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, views
open wide to the indifferent universe.
Totally Optional Prompt: Fireworks! ... explore some pyrotechnic language. Go for some really over-the-top images.
Thursday afternoon: I came in and did some small, but significant, edits.
"Great arched skylights, wide
open views to the indifferent universe. "
is just sublime.
Posted by: Felicity | 08 July 2009 at 08:51 PM
So full of imagery and, yes, the last lines were excellent.
Posted by: Anthony North | 09 July 2009 at 01:50 AM
I could read this a dozen times for all the wonderful details!
Posted by: Linda Jacobs | 09 July 2009 at 10:02 AM
Indifferent universe - struck me like a cherry bomb. Nice work!
Posted by: Tumblewords | 09 July 2009 at 05:11 PM
Phew! This is loaded with images! I like the bit about the diaries being written in invisible ink.
Posted by: Andy | 09 July 2009 at 05:42 PM
Wonderful images! A pleasure to read this..
abstracting
Posted by: gautami tripathy | 10 July 2009 at 07:42 PM
i agree great images
Posted by: wayne | 10 July 2009 at 09:11 PM
K D Lang is dancing the tango with Philip Glass.Now there's a good prompt for a poem.
Posted by: Rallentanda | 11 July 2009 at 07:27 AM
Actually, k.d. lang dancing the tango with Phillip Glass was my favorite image in the whole poem -- but it's packed with great images to begin with. It was hard to decide. I love how this draws us in, room by room, detail by detail. Good write.
-Nicole
Mutiny in Six Parts
Posted by: Nicole Nicholson | 13 July 2009 at 07:05 AM