Once,
a house was asked to stay and it stayed.
A husband and wife moved in
cooked, slept, and bore three children.
The house stood still through it all.
The children grew, went to school, found jobs.
The husband and wife grew old, but happy.
The children married, bore children, and stayed
until first the husband and then the wife
grew so old they died.
In the windows candles burned those nights
and gave the house a lucid sight.
After that the children moved.
Later still, the house.