Wrecked House

I stood beside a wrecked house

Close to the road

And, stepping high and cautiously

For fear of six-foot rattlers

I made my way through the (remains) ruin

Of the garden

Past assorted (the) auto parts

(the) Stoved-in chicken coops

A tin bath with a hole in the bottom

The wringer

The bed-stead

The frigidaire with the missing door

A gabled two-story cottage

A collapsed veranda

That in it’s day must have been as suburban

As any farmhouse on the prairie

Inside

I was met by a panic scurry of wings

Swallows had built their nest

At picture height

On the parlor walls

Wrecked house close to the road

Words from the book "Bad Land" by Jonathan Raban used with kind permission of the author.