Houses without the moon inside them.
Houses lifting from earth like hot air balloons.
Houses at rest, catching their breath.
Houses festooned with streamers and believers
on the baptism’s slow afternoon.
Houses with doors locked up by bolts.
Houses whose colors change with seasons.
Houses with rooms that always feel cold.
Houses belying an eighth deadly sin.
Houses with galaxies within, with dust
and nebulae and comets jammed within.
Houses absolved of all their residents.
Houses resolved of their recurring impediments.
Houses fallen dark, houses gone silent, houses for rent.
Charles Jensen is the author of four chapbooks of poems and a full-length collection, The First Risk, which was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award. He lives in Los Angeles.