Two Houses

this house

has too many

silent rooms

in the parlor

at the west end

i stare idly out  

at a lingering

gray winter dusk

the house on the hill

across the way

between the barren trees

is bigger still and

fills the view

from the wide

south-facing window

the pastoral

scene beyond

the glass could

easily have been

in another time

a painting

inked

upon a

scroll

but it’s not

in a world of homelessness

it’s just obscene

the lingering flakes from

today’s first major storm

continue softly to fall

in their playful oversize

the unseen neighbor

turns on her front porch lamps

but stays inside to watch

in this way we live close

intimate in manners

yet far apart