The Walls Can Talk

Red-painted interior with an open doorway leading through adjoining rooms to a bathroom.
Yellow kitchen with rooster curtains, worn cabinets, sink, dishes, cleaning supplies, microwave, and ironing board.
Blue-walled bathroom with sink, bathtub, window, shelving, and personal objects

Mr. and Mrs. Brown lived here.
Mrs. Brown left.
Mr. Brown stayed…
because he had nowhere else to go.

Woman seated in a richly decorated living room with red curtains, patterned furniture, floral arrangements, wall art, and a television.

Henry loved to ride motorbikes until it killed him.
We buried him out here behind the house
and hoisted that damn bike of his on the pole
as his marker.

Cluttered living room with stacked boxes, mobility equipment, household items, a curtained window, and a motorbike visible outside the door.
Worn kitchen with plaid curtains, sink filled with dishes, pots on the stove, water bottles, containers, and aging cabinets.
Four young people are seated on sofas in a living room, several looking at phones, with blue curtains and an open front door.

Got up. Cooked some grits.
Normally I’d cook some bacon but didn’t have none.
Then washed the clothes to hang ’em before it get hot.
How old are you?
I’m 12.

Girl seated on a sofa holding two young children, with a television, adjoining bedroom, and children’s toys visible in the room.
Bedroom with a bed and crib, children’s toys, a glowing bedside lamp, television, and a blanket covering a doorway.

This is Sandra.
Sometimes her grandkids come over to play.

Sometimes.

Cluttered wood-paneled bedroom and living space with an unmade bed, playpen, clothing and belongings scattered throughout, and a person seated near the back of the room.
Woman seated in a wood-paneled living room surrounded by family photographs, cards, books, keepsakes, and personal mementos.
Blue-walled bedroom with an unmade bed, blue fabric covering the windows, and a doorway opening into a wood-paneled adjoining room.