I had a yellow house....

"the house does not rest upon the ground
but upon a woman"
- Mexican Proverb

For Hannah...together we loved a yellow house...

I Had a Yellow House

i had a house
of
yellow
clapboard...
windowpanes
that rippled
in
the early light
of a
cool September day

her
window sashes
sang
a song
of prairie
widows
when the snow
swirled
across the
plains
and the cattle
stood like
boulders
against the cutting
winds of a
January night

I had a little house that
once held a
family 
of seven
with
only a wood stove for
heat and books
to keep them
company
when the days were long
with summer light
and the
fireflies were all that
twinkled long before
switches and wires
crisscrossed
the plains and
made
the day even longer and
his rest from
back buckling labor
as welcome
as the silence that
descended on the
land
when the
horizon turned
violet in the west

I had a little
yellow house with
a kitchen so full
of light that
she felt warm
even when
ice formed inside the
window panes and
she creaked
like my grandmother's
knees
after a game of
checkers on the
playroom floor

I had
a
little house
a
yellow
picket fence
hedged her hem
like rick rack
seven
birdhouses sat
in her trees
and pale, pink
roses trailed
her arbored gate

each Spring
she spread her
skirts and
let us
plant within
the folds of
its soft green taffeta
our tomatoes
peppers and
tender ears of corn...
marigolds to
chase away the
beetles and
lavender to
welcome hummingbirds
and bumble bees
for the hope
of honey

I had a
yellow porch rail
the color of butter 
fresh from the
churn

Morning glories
entwined their
fingers among her
spindles and lifted
the edges of
the ancient
layers of
paint a woman
once
spent her
food money on
to make her
beautiful

i have a yellow
house
she lives inside of
me like a
breathing child
I feel her
shift with
the sweetness of
time and as
the memory of her
grows I love her more

I never needed food
but butter
yellow paint
would feed
my soul on
mornings when the
sky was pink with the
sweet cool air
of dawn
my tea was
hot and
my heart was full
of a
yellow house
and
a child that
slept softly
under the
eaves....
dreaming of
her
yellow
house

K