We lived on Greenbaum Land

John Heward

There was a haunted house
behind our place, with the attic burned
out, where we
crossed a balance board to
read a long forgotten
will and testament, but
only afte seeking secret paassages.

We lived on Greenbaum land.
Who owned it for a mile either way 
along this
side of the highway. It
was all wood and swamp once;
there was a skating pond
too, where everyone came for ice.

I watched them demolish
it from firetrap to firewood and helped
my father
wheel the barrow home. We
burned it piece by piece through
winter, took the magnolias in spring.
Our cellar was flooded.