A House on the Shore

We're going to watch it
Wash away

Like it never was ours
Like it never belonged to us at all

. . . . .

Some guy on the news today
Was asking why
Some people still build
Houses
On shores
They know
Will one day
Cease to exist

I felt guilty

I felt like he was talking to me

But I didn't answer him back

I make it a point
Not to have conversations
With my television

Instead I kept sipping my coffee
Watching the wind
Throw a beach ball
Back and forth
Across the road

That was when the power went out
And the water
Started rushing
Into the basement


. . . . .


I had already decided
I was staying with the house


I imagined the band from the Titanic
Playing in my living room


While I walked up the stairs
Pretending there was a bath running
In the basement


A nice, soothing bath


Nothing more


. . . . .


My husband's upstairs in bed
Waiting for me


Like Levi Strauss
Like a true ship's captain
He waits


The food in the fridge will go sour
But that's all right

We're used to sour tastes
In this house

Maybe it'll keep

Maybe the cool water will make it upstairs in time
To float the fridge out into the ocean
Where the food will keep
Until the fish figure out
How to open the door

Then they'll enjoy our garlic dip
And our portobello mushrooms

Won't that be nice for them?

My husband isn't breathing

He's holding his breath
I tell myself

He's waiting in eager anticipation
For the storm to come

Or he's practing, perhaps

Perhaps he's teaching himself
How to drown

. . . . .

I do some writing by the window

I describe what I'm seeing
To mark the time

Cars bobbing along
Like buoys

Whales dancing on the front lawn

Our above-ground pool
Becoming an in-ground pool
Then an underground pool

Then redundant

I take the photos of our children off the wall
And place them lovingly in the bathtub

When the time comes
They'll think they're just taking a bath

That's if the water gets this high

But it might

I have hopes that it might

I hope it takes the entire house

Hook, line, and sinker

Because why flood half a house?

What would be the point?

. . . . .

I lay next to my husband

We had some great times

But from day one
I knew
One day
We'd cease to exist

That's just how marriage is now

When my parents got married
It wasn't the case

You got married to someone strong
And stable
With a good foundation

And you knew
You'd last forever

Like a house on a hill

Above all uncertainty

But as time went on
People started becoming seduced
By the prospect
Of a house on the shore

We saw the hurricanes
We saw the rain
We felt the wind
Blow pebbles against our cheeks

But when the sun came out
We forgot

And so we built

We built houses
We knew would never last

And now trouble's here
And it's time to pay up

It's time to pay
For the good times we had

I lay next to my husband
And I take his hand
And the last thing I say to him is--

'It was worth it.  I believe it was worth it.'

And that's when the ocean
Comes to claim us

Our house
Our marriage
Our memories

All of it

Borrowed

Borrowed, and gone

. . . . .


We're going to watch it
Wash away

Like it never was ours
Like it never belonged to us at all