Moving

House-moving all morning:
everything topsy-turvy
people passing through rooms
along stairs, through doors.

Around noon
a stranger takes the tables
that talked yesterday, are mute today
objects turned into objects
furnishings for a strange hotel.

On the landing
the dark man with white hair
lets the heavy sideboard and
loveseat parade past
down the staircase.
Now tripod forms are
merely numbers on men's shoulders.

Why are they going, leaving home
riding off in trucks
to other housesmaking this vacancy?

I look at the cabinet
with its little Corinthian-column legs.
That goes, too, its past
no longer holds it
everything's been freed
the house moved.

[next][previous] [contents][Enchanting Beasts]