Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


A WHITE HOUSE by ROSSANA OMBRES

First Line: A WHITE HOUSE IN FRONT OF THE PARK

A white house in front of the park
sulking at the opulence of the plants.
A house with its first
virtue of fortitude
in its inability to grow
(inclined as it is to be only root)
a trim two-story house
with a narrow doorway that recalls
through which narrows life is channeled,
with that wonder of answered prayer
that only can persist in lime...

From that house I saw you come
with an unfamiliar complexion
voracious eyes and as if
hidden in your step a mad
cruelty.
I said, "There, he moves, alive and flush
with life" and a shutter
slammed violent and black at a wind that wasn't there.


Used by permission of Story Line Press.



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