Stetson in Retrograde

As a matter of law, the house is haunted.
–Stambovsky v. Ackley, 1991

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

Source: Index of Haunted Houses (Sarabande Books, Inc., 2019)