You have the abstract, the key---
so you think the place is yours?

You are deceived. Consider:
It will mistrust a new master.

Listen: its resistance
echoes in unfilled rooms.

The hiss of its unease
seeps at night from the heating.

The throat of the plumbing grumbles.
The hinges cry out. Hear.

Think: it is alien, old,
unsettled, unsettling.

Best plan how it might be gentled,
as you sit in the one armchair

under the one lamp, staring
at the bare hardwood floors.

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Maryann Corbett lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota and works for the Minnesota Legislature as an in-house writing teacher, editor, and indexer. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in The William and Mary Review and Strong Verse.
 

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