Open House
The lane hedges are smartly cut: they have a sour-fresh smell. On our walk, the reprieve of cool wind is brief. Heat sticks. Cloud builds. Stand a while by the cut-open house because such a place reeks of fascination. See the rose print curtains; drawn open for a morning that lingers in their poignant witness; and the bared stairs where feet changed direction when they did remember what they were going to do after all. Why is memory so easily lost and found in a stairwell? Footings for more space are dug: those old memories will tumble down, be mixed in. Even when the specifics are gone, the vestiges of history hold; lightly haunt. The field is a wider space, where we can open our arms to catch spouts of wind. The crumbled barn has no doors but its spaces are like eyes: you can look through them, view the world as the barn views it. This evening rain comes. Tepid drops on warm tarmac; they make a low mist, they sparkle in headlights. Imagine tho