*776

When you pass in the car

the number glints in headlights

776

new folks in freshly painted rooms

Living a new life with no memory

Of the blood spilt here

sleepless nights of needless worry

the raucous laughter of grandchildren

tearful pleas of the "kids" now grown old

ruddy faces at so many Christmas bacchanals

The agony and the ecstasy here

the abundant life lived without a care

pacing in the darkened house

Can I make the payment?

a hundred birds calling in the bouganvilla

the garage opener rumbling

Daddy fell here on the rug

and never returned

Do the new ones know

Can they hear the morning cough

the reedy phone conversations to Chrissie

A doorbell and dog pandamonium

Mom slowed to a stop still in the den

the new babies, the partners now forgotten

Cole slaw and sugar cured ham

cold beers and briquet smoke

We remember, separated by space from it now

The vigil during a coma

The admission of impending divorce

the thousands of greeting kisses and ball games in the front

A golden anniversary with oxygen

tapdancers on the bricks out back

Laying baby Daylon on the bed upstairs

Walking past the roses, stopping

Thinking you will smell them next time

The pitched battles against addictions

Home movies whirring on the old projector

Cassettes of holiday ghosts drifting away

Riding trikes out front with the grandkids

Paul and Steve "bust" out the rockem sockem robots

Slow down!!!

Polyester cheese hanging in the cedar walk-in

Mister Ito is out front in his truck

Now Dad just sits and dreams of Manhattan Tower

Never leave me...never leave me

Mom grits her teeth and yells at the pups

It's the time rushing by she hates really

Even the kids got wrinkled and gray

Jeff and Shaun's skateboards grinding across the hardwood

Fried chicken bouncing into the air

As a fist hammered down in disagreement

The girls went out carolling

Where are Shaun and Lori?

Triumphs taken for granted

Small worries grown huge

A dizzy spell that became a pacemaker

Eye patches, then independence vanishes

The Spanish meal, Stephen take some home!

Bubblebaths and contentment in the new-cuzzi

Do they hear the ghosts

Smell the orders from La Rizza just arrived

The barking that changed timber

the hushed voices, the wide mouthed laughter

duck or you'll hit your head

Sad last car trips to rainbow bridge appointments

Dancing in the den, arms flying free

An invisible welcome mat to all of blood

That's Dahlia, she's our latest

The walls do speak in past present

the kitchen stools creak before grapefruits

Past the curtains to the grass

Seven "boys" throw a turbo-football

Shouts, curses and sweat on the street

Aunt Cheryl sure looks tired

Why did Glen leave so suddenly?

Goddamned MaryAnn always wants to go

Her belly full and no interest in us

Wow, Lori is a teenager

Freddy rode that zodiak like a sailor

Check out the arm on that kid

He's a natural that one

Girls! Look at the camera

Look at that red hair!

That cake... we bought it at Ralphs

Truth is the front room smells like dog piss

The dogs were not the problem really

Do they, do they hear it still?

Walking up the entry hearing Jilly's laugh

There's another one shouts a kid!

Easter eggs in obvious places

they eat them with the shells on

Long, solemn talks on the patio

Meetings with hospice care

Gray faces, gray spaces and tears

In places kept secret there were stories

we saved for last

the diaries, the mementos, the words kept

Four newspaper clippings in an envelope

Read them again, live them again

photographs and memories

A scrapbook just waiting to happen

We just keep on living, going on

Hey! Shut the F**k UP...it's 1:30 in the morning!

Just some miles away

A plaque reads grandma...grandpa...father...mother

But they lived here

They lived at 776