The house I grew up in
smelled of bourbon
and antique dressers
that knew more stories
more secrets
than Aesop alone

The house I grew up in
was crooked
one marble on one side
rolled straight to the other
and cried
the whole way there

The house I grew up in
had stairs that creaked
and broken floorboards
Don’t get stuck,
Don’t get stuck
dad would say

I carried that phrase
in my pocket
for years (decades)

The house I grew up in
were the calloused arms
of men I’d never meet
all because of the
cracks and
the creaks and
the crooks of
the floorboards