Poems by Rose

AS IS

 

Don’t dress the damage.

Don’t dim the light.

Don’t hide the hairline cracks from sight.

 

Don’t burn the candles, bleach the stain,

then call the ceiling sound through rain.

Don’t sand the splinters, seal the seams,

then sell me shelter built on dreams.

 

Show me the hinges thick with rust.

Show me what buckles under trust.

Show me the window warped with weather,

the parts that never pulled together.

 

Show me the fuse that flames too fast,

the boarded rooms that hold the past.

The floorboard groaning under pride.

The cellar where your shadows hide.

 

I’m not impressed by polished floors,

fresh flowers framed by open doors.

Anyone can stage a space,

sweep every splinter out of place.

 

I’d rather see what time has tried,

what water warped, what fire fried.

I’d rather know which beams give way

before I trust my weight to what may sway.

 

Because my walls aren’t flawless, too.

There’s patched-up plaster showing through.

A stubborn lock. A stubborn stain.

Some rooms still rattle when it rains.

 

I know which corners catch the cold,

which cracks are new, which scars are old.

I know the weight my rafters bear.

I know where rot still needs repair.

 

So don’t give me the grandest tour.

Show me what no guest sees anymore.

Pull back the rug. Undo disguise.

Let your ugly look mine in the eyes.

 

Let mine meet yours without décor,

without fresh flowers by the door.

No polished pitch. No practiced part.

Just faulty wiring. Fractured heart.

 

Then we can learn, before we choose,

whose storms will soothe, whose storms will bruise;

whether your crooked fits with mine,

whether our crooked beams align.

 

And if they don’t, then let them fall

before we hang our lives on walls.

Better keys laid down in time

than two wrong houses intertwined.

 

But if your ruins recognize

the rubble resting behind my eyes—

if neither needs the other new,

only honest enough to weather through—

 

then leave the paint.

Leave every scar.

 

Let me see the house

before I call it ours.