#while babysitting

creamy walls and empty

sunlit

the stairs cast shadows

as if there were company

but

no movement disturbs their placement

sit like still sleeping beasts

at the head of the dining room table

six chairs

most gone for having stayed in the city

alone and breezed on through the open window

ceramic pots of exotic plants

couldn't recognize them for a name

the surrounding shelves

side tables and desks, walls

filled with small objects

of memories of another family

cousins and summers, smooth stones

immense green garden, behind screen doors

unused and left out sun chairs

enough for more

than this just one

pillar candles melted from evenings

spent around card games

rained in

memories in which only they are present

milky jugs for water

or lemonade

tablecloths and linens, folded

cupboards full

the wood waxy and worn

familiar though this is the first encounter

comforting despite that

this is the first time spent

for you

in someone else's perpetual

summer cottage, their

existence has filled the rafters

they're jumping off the dock

hiding in the careganna

drinking, unbeknownst, on the lawn

cooking paella 

they've been cleaning the pool house

staining their chins with popsicles

sun bleaching their blonde cowlicks

freckles in the bathtub

madras seat covers

thick woven sheets on the day bed

warm and as if they'd laid them for you

knowingly

libraries of an aunt's discs like

diana kraal, billie joel and etta james

under kerosene light

eating a green apple with a hunting knife

sitting alone

in a house of

not your own

time spent in

summer cottages, their