The House Knows First

The porch boards answer with a tired old creak / Mailbox leaning like it did that week / Paint on the rail chipped deep and wide / Ball dents buried along the side / Kitchen tile holds scuffs from a chair / One loose handle hanging there / A cupboard mark at shoulder height / From years that slipped my mind from sight / The house knows first, the house knows well / Stories I cannot fully tell / Doorframes tall with pencil dates / Older than the thoughts I make / The house knows first, the house keeps score / Footprints fading near the door / Rooms recall the kid I was / Long before I paused because / Back hall closet still packed tight / Boxes stacked from moving night / Ticket stubs and baseball cards / Dust on trophies from the yard / Up the stairs the floor complains / Same old creak beneath my weight / Wallpaper flowers turned to brown / Still arranged the same around / Attic box with crooked tape / Photos curled along the shape / Faces laughing near the lake / Names that time began to take / I search my head it drifts away / But this old place will always stay / Front door closes soft and slow / Still the walls already know