Some Came Close To Being Homes

We will paint this house she said;
the wonder that ensued began
an incandescent plan imbued with
heady scent of permanence, a
notion in that here, a decade on,
is where she’ll make her home.

We lived in many houses through
the years, some in classic sense
came close to being homes –
some had grown from lodgings
of necessity – obtained in pleasing
memories, became those places
so relaxed – but none quite that
essential home to me.

We’ll water-blast the dross of years,
she said with eagerness, clean the eaves
of verdigris and paint it green again,
cement the cracks and crevices, fill the
gaps and decorate the concrete tanks.
I’ll have the roof in heritage, the walls
in cream, the patio an earthy red...

I looked towards quiescent trees
who nodded – Yes!
It sounded all so
earthly good to me.
© 3 March, 2007 I.D. Carswell