Sale Pending: Revision

There was upon the sill a mark
painters had missed, realtors not erased.
A point had grooved the wood, embedded dark
lead in the pale grain. And others, spaced
up and down the wall below, laid out
a history of growth. A parent's pencil
tapped a tousled head and wrote. Fade out:
a year goes by, another mark is stenciled.

The sidewalk sign said Sale Pending. Buyers
walked through the house, indulging their desire
to see, to touch new property. The agent
brushed at the mark, as at dust. She joked "It's Cajun,
blackened, you know." The clients laughed, and kept
on disturbing dust where no broom had swept.

Collection available! Knocking from Inside