This Old House

Soon the sun will glow
Through the east facing blinds

I haven't worked in seven months
Yet I rise every day before him

And write a poem or two

The ceiling fan wabbles
Finches, sparrows and a cooing white-winged dove

Greet the dawn
Sweet morning music 
Best time for me
Should be waking up in cooler climes
Shoulda been coulda been woulda been
Gone by now
But for this old house
Drug from an extinct mining camp
Off the top of a mountain 
One that got scraped away 
And dumped across the highway
Miner's shack really
Bought it for about 
One year's teaching salary
In 1995
Kept all it's 100 year old doors
Crystal doorknobs and skeleton key locks
Stripped away the lath and plaster
Took out some walls, moved another
Replummed, rewired

Refinished wood floors 

Put down some maple 

Added on some rooms
And guarded it all with white pickets
This place has it's charm
Why I fought her to keep it
Quit my job in Vegas
Well--retired altogether 
So I could stay here
I don't know
Funny I am like that
Usually don't care
Pretty good at it
But this old house in this old town
I care 
Although right now I wish I were
Living in my rv somewhere north
Grand Tetons,Yellowstone, Glacier 
Somewhere cold 
Got my eldest daughter in Montana
But I'm here near my youngest
And her baby
Son just got back from Kuwait
He and my favorite daughter in law
Coming to visit from NY
Wants her dad over for barbeque Wednesday
Golfing, then dinner out and pub crawl Thursday
She's good to my son--good to everyone really
--she gets what she wants
I'll put a shine on the place

Marinate a prime rib for the smoker
Buy her tequila, his whiskey, some beer

And get a tee time

I'm glad

I could be snuggled up in the cold

On a pine scented morning

And be fishing before the sun hit the water

But no one would come see me

Guess I'd fight again

For this old house

Sun's beating the blinds

It's garbage day

Gotta drag out the bin

Two whole bags

Yet I pay more now than

When this old house was full

(Sigh)