PREVIOUS TENANTS
Vancouver Special Deliverance
rec room roof
post and beam style
like grandmother's house
full of gin and cigarette holders and tiny sandwiches
calling for significance
after grandfather's big sleep
he read the paper, she cooked
and the dog scratched kitchen sideboard clean
now the washer doesn't work
leaking bubbles and dye
working into shag carpet
I've covered the spill made
when spaghetti dropped
covertly hiding years of
repressed stains. How to
make white shirt whiter
without bleaching glitter
and beating against stucco
he never told me how to
chop wood for fireplace but
there isn't any left because
neighbours wanted views
of a sophisticated city
Found hunting rifle and knives
while cleaning out his work room three
years after giving him to the earth
I'll never kill a deer shopping
at Whole Foods and I'll never listen
to the forest, ears are too busy
with sounds of street