We use the side door off the driveway
walk through an always standing open gate
trees flank the rusty chain link fence
a staircase leading to the second floor greets us
to the left, there’s an old kitchen barely big enough
for a stove and refrigerator.

The house is heated with coal
delivered and dumped near the window
Dad shovels it into the basement and feeds the old furnace
heat rises, keeping the first floor warm, not the second
each bedroom has tall, wood-paned, drafty windows with a scenic view
sometimes there are these creepy worm like critters
and mice at the foot of my bed.

Flowering pear trees and a clothesline grace the back yard 
Mom must have chosen this house
seeking her childhood-country life
tired of living on Air Force bases
Dad drives an hour to the base each day.

We are the new kids in a one room country school
me, in the sixth, my brother in the fourth
there was teasing going on
it is discussed at dinner
Mom’s hot having it
as dusk settles in
we see lights from the ’55 VW bus pass the window
she turns up the county road towards our teacher’s home
not long she returns
there is no more teasing.