it was amber
or rather, the visions of her
iridescent and yet looming over his head like
a cloud,
an ever-oppressive government with a dictator
who refused to show himself.
--
it was the boy
in the red track suit
with the blue vest and the red
sweatshirt
the color of culture
and the hands that would never
quITe
StaY w hEre
they belonged
him, that one,
he taught house to enjoy
and to plot
and to scheme
and gave him a blank pad to which he could scribble
anything of his life's point
to it
but in the end
that wasn't what house needed.
--
then there was Wilson
who didn't help him
at all and in fact
pushed him far away
he did what was right
but he did wrong by his
dear friend
and with little explanation threw him
to the thimbles in a sea of yarn
with no needles
because those were taken away, should he try to hurt himself
--
and then there was annie
with her missing voice box
a navy peeling treasure chest
that sang and sang until the mechanical voice grew hoarse
(which was never)
and annie taught house that he could help people
that he was a leader indeed
that there was something wrong but it could be fixed and he would still
be him.
--
finally there was the woman
who spoke the language of the misanthropes so
heavily accented house was sure
this was a second language to her
because no woman so beautiful could be so broken
to start
and Lydia
oh, sweet lydia
taught him that love
is not something that one cultivates with design and planning
but is a feeling that is
not controlled by circumstance
or boundaries or situation
and lydia had her bolt of purple cloth which she
covered him with,
he was immune from the disease and distaster of the wretched
but those eyes, those crystal blue eyes
lydia, indeed
was the one who made those eyes bleed tears
that cracked over the surface of his dry soul and
in the hour of the midnight sun
he realized the truth.
--
it was lydia who made this happen.
it was lydia who fished house out of the sea
but it was house who climbed into her boat.