from The Paperwork Rebuttal, Daniel Roche [good books for high schoolers txt] 📗

was the first to go, "We're so sorry Donna, we'll get this straightened out." Soon after 'OVERDUE' arrived from the bank. I knew I was a few days late, "but the check is in the mail" and, "this will never happen again." Our retirement recoiled as my credit card debt howled, naked, and lapping up interest. It was months later when, "could you please try to run it again. Please. I just want the bread, the eggs, and these." The bank soon soiled our mailbox with red ink, but at least Babygirl giggled when she picked up the phone, waited for, "...payment is...," and slammed, no, gently hung it up for me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wash off the crayon portraits dressing the walls and hums made of powder

 

sketched by downy hands (bobbing curls) "la-dada-dada, ice cream soup"

 

Repossess the scent of lilacs of legs that once dangled

 

thawing in a market across thresholds, "this will be our home."

 

 

 

 

8. Equity is a rocky precipice 9. bent on crumbling

 

10a. With each unpaid balance in principle

(as a solvent to sound rest.)

 

10b. With each unpaid interest in security

(as sighs soon replace breath)

 

10c. Other sacrifices incurred to date

(itemized by faith, family, friends)

 

10d. The house is ours, Home is only a word,

("New friends will be waiting, Babygirl.")

 

 

11. Know collective fingertips push profit 12. To your waving neighbors

 

13. And it's easier to demonize a skyscraper when the windows are tinted.

 

14. Justification pushes forward in doses (in bits of self-preservation).

 

Hapless circumstances, yes, But empathy for ink paper

 

15. It comes in choice of sight, of scene.

(at most aloofness, but not callous.)

 

16. Donna, I too have a daughter:

 

17a. My sweetheart, Jen:

Six years old

Mom's dimples

 

17b. She hums and draws:

stars grinning

constellation dots

 

18. I've known financial misery

when hands tremble

and self-worth is broke

 

19. It's possible for me to see you as more than a name on a form

 

20. But my cornerstone rests in My daughter's hands:

 

In My Home "Daddy!"

Selfish perhaps, or necessary resolve ("The Star Princess glowed brighter than the sun!")

 

 

 

 

 

 

Part B. Memories of Mortgagee

 

1. No, you call Home a word, but This is Ours,

 

2. The floor is settled and Our front door disagrees.

 

 

3. There, see that smudge, There, we are more than ink!

 

4. And Our marvelous hail will never stand aside.

(My daughter's wallpaper will ice over again.)

 

5. Echoes will splash against Our photographs

(Crystal white rectangles dress the living room walls.)

 

6. And no, portraits cannot be washed away

(And no pink skip can tear Our foundation.)

 

7. This roof will enclose us and hide us from,

("Orion's Belt!")

 

8. But your notice is Here now.

(And my hands tremble now. And American Dream whimpers

and nuzzles up against my thigh.)

 

This is no longer Ours, is it. This is no longer Home, is it.

 

 

 

No, I see. We are filed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Imprint

Text: Daniel Roche
Images: Daniel Roche and Eric Piatkowski
Editing: Frank Burton
Publication Date: 07-26-2013

All Rights Reserved

Dedication:
Dedicated to those who have ever found themselves lost in a mundane sea of cubicles.