Walking in an Abandoned House (June)

In      a scattered             residential

neighborhood

            of a small town

sparse

            and dark

            old and weedy

Pahn and Phaithohn       are thinking of Lakhehsis’ house

The house has been bulldozed

                                                            removed

There is raw dirt        

                     and large sheets of detritus

                 and a depression

                                             like a fallen-in basement

      Pahn and Phaithohn walk around it

                        looking for scraps of what it was

Pahn speaks with     Phaithohn and Aiks

Pahn doesn’t understand why

                                                            the house

                                                                                    was bulldozed

                        and why nothing was recovered from it first

Phaithohn and Aiks say that there was nothing of Pahn’s in it

            so it wouldn’t matter to him

but he remembers to them

                        that his grandmother’s cabinet

was there

            and it matched the buffet

                            in Nomioss’ house

                                    and he would have liked to have it…

                        …they have brought back the house from the air

                                                but it is empty

Pahn remembers a possible basement—

                                    searching the halls he finds

                        two bedrooms that he hadn’t seen earlier

            and didn’t remember

He finds a                          

black   

             cotton-voile   

                                                            pleated see-through                  (blouse?)

He imagines that a couple has been there—

There are couples that like to have sex

in abandoned houses

like in a field

            but less open

     sheltered

            but not locked

     out of view

          and almost safe

                                                            but not belonging to anyone

There is a freedom in it

                                    and a comfort

            temporary

                                    but memorable

                    new and different

in the context of an unknown history

Perhaps to make love is to entangle      someone

in the context

                                                of an abandoned past?

After a while there is wallpaper

                                                            and a little furniture

It is intricate and dark

                                                            reminding Pahn of Russian folk art

He comments on Lakhehsis’ taste

(which is nothing like her taste in another place)

It is interesting

                    He is comfortable with it

          It draws him in

                                                                        makes him feel like he has found

                                                                                                       something

                                    He leaves the bedroom for the living room

  and finds                         

                        the owner of the black cotton voile

                  walking in from the kitchen

Her shoulder skin       

                        is exposed

                and her legs are naked

                     and her midriff shows

                           and her thin black frill

                                                                evokes sex

                                     He is fascinated

              that a sense of sex would have walked

                                                                                    into this house

                                                            uninvited

                                    and having nothing to do with him

He doesn’t know                                                  

 what the other members of the family

         think of it—                                        

He is unnerved                                                     

     but interested

                                    welcoming