As a matter of law, the house is haunted.
—Stambovsky v. Ackley, 1991
1.
If a house is haunted like a radio is haunted If a body is a radio of blood If a body of ghosts hums like blood over a valley of bone If blood is a government of ghosts If bones grow green as cash in the foreign national of our ghosts If homes bloom along the interstate of our blood If from granaries of bone we rise in the newspapered dawn If amongst the chattering of water we rise like a benediction over the auspices of convenience If ghosts we rise like ghosts If we collect we collect like desire in a desert payphone If we ring If we ring like coins in the cup of night If we lie like coins in the palm of Nebraska If the sun is an argument with ghosts If the sun’s argument plays out in squares upon the floor of this home If the day winds down like a watch If heaven is a horology If desire is the body we give the past If at night termites tick like time in our bones If in these bones we find the body’s foreclosure
If in foreclosure we find the math of our homes If the math of our homes is the math of fire If the math of fire is the math of money If the math of money is a map of interstate rain If grief is a cup If grief is a cup let me drink from it and be drunk If drunk If drunk and wandering If thirsty and moneyed If coined and fashionable If drunk and wandering like a dog through the supermarkets of the night If I want the question of a home If I want as a windmill wants the wind If I want that lesson If I want the lesson that breaks me If I want the desert and its wind If I want to throw myself to it If I want never to be seen again If by the light of dentistry my teeth anoint ledgers lavish with loss If in these ledgers every tooth is a house If debt is a tooth the dentist will not pull
If awake If waking If awake in the wake of sleep If sore-eyed and stubbled If poorly fed yet fee’d If coffee’d and quiet If humming If awake and humming in the halls of convenience If aching under the auspice of birds whose voices are feathered and vaulted and keyed If of our voices we build a bank will it not speak If we atone If we and our homes atone If we sink alone into the chloroform fiduciary of home If we pill and drone If we alone are alone If we tether ourselves to the stones of our homes If we sink to lazier bones If we believe bankruptcy is a throne If along the rails the whistle no longer blows
If we choose If we had chosen If we better If we If we had been If we had been better and awake If we had accounted If we had awakened from the tax of sleep to the muted bells of bills that rang like fire in the foundries of past lovers If love If lovers and we sleep If like fire we bill the forest for overages If for a surcharge we survive the past If of the past If of the past we make a ministry of the past If we pass like fire over the waters of ambition If upon those waters we find our faces and weep If weeping stops If stopping stops If the ghost-math of money stops If named If a name is cast like a coin over the auspices of convenience If I call a name will that name call back If I call will I call collect If I collect like credit If I credit a ghost
If named for a ghost If in the name of all ghosts If the name is named that calls all ghosts to waking If waking ghosts If ghosts rise like desire from the granaries of sleep and dress for the newspapered dawn If newspapered and awake If hunted by convenience stores If alone and named If nameless and unknown If anonymous as light If mute as tax If a dividend of sun sits like a loan upon the floor of this home If silence is a loan If the sun is a school If ghosts are a lesson drawn in sand If the sun looms like a school of blood over subdivisions of ghosts If subdivided If the desert like a house of belief is a body dividended with blood
If belief is a ghost If blood is weather If bones are birds in a body of fog If debt is a body clothed with birds If the body is a myth in the municipal pool If birds gather like fists of cash on federal clotheslines If ghosts tremble on foreign buildings like cups of fog If cash is the myth in the myth of collection If myth is a lesson in collective loss If we are learned and lean If we are lessened by learning If learning is a lean-to to loss If a ghost is a home If a ghost is a thing bankrupt of bone If land is land only if it is lessoned in homes If we like land grow green with the memory of our blood If we grow and with land If we be If land is If we be and with land never let us be without If never without us our ghosts