THE HOUSE

The house they moved to when
he was two sat at the top
of a hill and was called,
he later learned, the Temperance
House. Years back it had been
an inn whose owner found Jesus
and threw out all his
bottles of booze to the chagrin
no doubt of his formerly
pie-eyed patrons.

At three the house cribbed
a sister. At four he and she caught
whooping cough but survived.

There were more rooms than
they had things to put in
and he was told never to go up
to the fourth floor. He did not
ask why not. He was not
at the why-not stage (that came
later) but one winter afternoon
he climbed the cold back
stairs and looked at the empty
floors and discolored walls
and shadows in the corners
and began to believe in ghosts.