DREAM HOUSE

a nightmare mansion
when I dream it, tattered curtains
billow ghastly by windows rain-beaten
bats roost in long corridors, feet
hooked to yellowed popcorn ceiling
an aquarium of walls stretch the first floor
seagrasses and fish we can never maintain
so many rooms we never knew so many
bedrooms hinged to basements
a vinyl-tiled banquet hall, cafeteria trays
fill the hands of dressed-down visitors
milling about the fathomless attic
rotting beams, dark wood everywhere
rooms leading into rooms, a puzzle
we purchased from ghosts
their spirits transfigured
into decadence, this house

Tara Tamburello’s fiction and poems have appeared in Bone Parade, Rust + Moth, Menacing Hedge, and anthologies by Vestal Review and Sans. PRESS. Her short plays have been produced in Pennsylvania, where she lives with her husband, children, and cat. You can find more of her work at taratamburello.com.