Leaning Against the Wall

Leaning Against the Wall

Up in Vermont

I went to a house in a town.

I walked up to the side door

And knocked on that door

And it opened.

First we went to the back

Building because that’s where they

Had things they didn’t want.

Then we went to the garage.

Every time I bought something I

Set it outside the buildings on the lawn.

I paid them for each item I bought

In cash, right away.

The man handed the money to his wife.

She would count it again and

It would disappear.

They seemed very pleased.

In the barn I told them I could

Get the cupboard off the wall

With the crowbar in my truck

When I came back from the

Truck they said they had some

Things in the house “too”.

The best thing I bought in there

Was a small oil painting of

A Colonial house by a river.

With a family in the front yard.

It was on the floor

Leaning against the wall

In this little room beyond

A back bedroom that someone

Had tried to make into a

Bathroom but had never finished.

It was in a stack of picture frames.

I bought all the pictures frames as one lot.

I paid for them and carried them outside.

I laid them on the lawn.

Then I went back inside the house.