Homeland Security

Only a believer could love this house

Could believe that this creaky old thing might become a home

Could look into the empty spots and see a future fire burning, a future meal cooking, a future family.

I saw those things here – I imagined them true.

I bought appliances and furniture and knickknacks.

I created a family and put them here with me.

All of those things, of course, require protection from the elements

So I tucked smoke alarms and fire extinguishers and CO detectors among my things -

An emergency system to warn against harm.

But there was no warning system for the other toxins that creep into a home:

Subtle anger that blooms into rage and then settles into apathy in the corners.

Those things appear quietly, insidiously.

There were warning signs, certainly; little lights that went off – alarms that sounded.

But those alarms weren’t connected to an outlet or a battery, and we didn’t hear them soon enough.

And so the home turned back into a house and burned to the ground.