A House Is an Arrow Pointing Up

A House Is an Arrow Pointing Up

What is the word
for the people who lived in the house
before you

Not neighbor,
not benefactor

not even kin
though certainly a kind of kin

And those who get the house next
are also in that inheritance

You, who have slept here as I will soon sleep
You, who have been without clothes in these walls
every day a few times

You, standers at the sink and lookers out the window here
to see the bright purple clematis
resting its weight on the fence

You who will be here one day
loneliness is inaccurate

and yet we all will feel it