A House in the Forest Where No House Should Be

There is a house

In the forest

Where no house

Should be

There’s something about it

That tells you

That where it is

There should be nothing

The same way

Some people stand

In front of you

And you can see

That you shouldn’t

Be seeing anything

And yet

There something is

One day as a child

I was walking down the street

And a man stepped in front of me

And while I knew

He couldn’t hurt me

I also knew

That this man shouldn’t be

He stood there

And I stood there

And then my mother caught up to me

And when she did

She asked the man his name

And he told her ‘Pilson’

But Pilson is not a name

And my mother knew this

So she grabbed my hand

And we walked all the way home

Without ever looking back

Because there shouldn’t be

Anything

To see there

Later, as a teenager

I went searching

For something

Like the man I went that day

I wanted to see something

I wasn’t meant to see

Or meet a person

I wasn’t meant to meet

But it’s so hard to know

If something you’re doing

Is something

That should never be done

It’s not as simple

As doing something random

Or spontaneous

It’s about understanding

What could happen

And doing something that can’t

But will

That’s how I found

The house in the forest

Where no house should be

It was easy to see

That absence was required

And the house had refused

The house had no doors

And no windows

And one could argue

That all that it was lacking

Could create the case

That it wasn’t a house at all

But four walls

A ceiling

And--I suppose--a floor

But when I put my hands

On the house

I felt that it was negating me

Demanding that I move away

And show some respect

To a place that isn’t

Meant to be a place

Not wanting to be rude

I walked away

And didn’t look back

Because you don’t look at houses

Where houses

Are not supposed to be

That afternoon we got word

That far away in another country

A long lost relative

Had died in a terrible accident

And we would need to settle their affairs

As best we could

When we arrived in the foreign country

We found all manner of things

That didn’t belong

But that might have been

Because we didn’t belong

And nothing we touched

Wanted to acknowledge us

We got things in order

Then flew back home

And on the way there

I looked down

At the sky

And saw clouds

Where clouds shouldn’t be

And sunlight

Where there shouldn’t be light

And a land below

That looked like

It should be water

I either belonged in a world

That didn’t belong

Or I was the thing

That didn’t belong

And which one it was

I couldn’t know

Knowing was nothing

That should be

There was nothing

I needed

To know