What Books Get Wrong About Old Houses

You can't skip over the third stair

if you're sneaking into the kitchen

because all the stairs creak,

just in different ways.

They don't talk about the light

in the closet

the frayed string that keeps getting shorter and shorter

until you stand on tiptoes

and grasp through the dark

for it,

then pull

to turn on the lights.

The shelves are all a mix

of dusty old books

that you probably couldn't open,

or they'd fall apart,

and art projects your sister brought home last week.

They do get right

that it's not all good

or bad.