Copyright 2009 Jerry W. Engler

Long house,

built on a prairie knoll

in 1871,

24 x 80 feet

with additions

by 1910,

stacked limestone foundation

built up by hand,

with mice and snakes,

sow bugs and beetles,

crawling through the cracks,

vines clinging to the rocks,

white wood framed,

wrap-around  gray porches

over dirt where the dogs lay

to cool in the summer,

toads came out
on the concrete steps,

dog didn't like them,
peeing in his mouth,

room for a big cistern
in the cellar,

where frogs somehow got in,

good drinking well out front,

running water provided

by mother and boys with buckets,

east half abandoned
in the 1930’s

dirt poor times and depression,

old parlor with
its faded lumber
cabinets and shelves

covered with the cobwebs
and dust of time,

by the 1950’s
back rooms used

for setting hens and baby chickens,

one wall open
for them to have sun,

facing boards fell off
along the roof

to allow hundreds
of English sparrows

to form a loud, chirping colony,

sounded like it roared
when a blacksnake made
its way through the nests,

falling plunk-full of sparrows
when it hit the porch,

put a bathroom
in part of the old back once,

a lot better than
the out-house toilet run,

great place
for playing marbles on linoleum

or outside in the sun,

a biological wonder
when it came down
in the 1970’s,

but hey, it was home,

love it still

as I dust away
with parts threatening
to shut down,

a biological wonder waiting
for a long house in heaven.