David Wagoner

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What the Houses Were Like Then

You could stand outside of one in a paved street
And look at it and say it was your house.
You could go to the door and open it with a key
And take two steps and close it behind you.

You´d be inside then. You could stay inside
Almost as long as you felt like. Nobody else
Came in unless you said so. Hot or cold
Water came out of pipes when you wanted it

And stopped when you didn´t. There were two rooms
Where you could eat when you needed to eat something.
There was only one basement. If you had to see
What was outside, you looked through a glass window

Or pulled a curtain across and didn´t think
About the clouds or what fell out of them.
Because of walls and ceilings, you could tell
Your own house ended short of somebody else´s.

Copyright 2007 University of Nebraska Press. All rights reserved.