On Visiting My Grandfather’s House By Paul Telles

On Visiting My Grandfather’s House
  
The house that Jake built
Has vinyl siding now
And a kitschy country welcome mat
With a smiling Jersey cow.
  
The house that Jake built
Still has its beveled glass,
Its polished hardwood floors,
Its doorknobs made of brass.
  
But the house that Jake built
Is mortgaged now by a single Mom
Whose daughter taps her phone
While she plans her senior prom.
  
Their life inside Jake’s house 
Needs no Cistercian shrine,
Nor formal Sunday dinners
Where the kids must learn to mind.
  
Jake’s German roar is silent.
His razor strop is gone.
Crabgrass Jake would not abide
Has conquered half his lawn.
  
The house that Jake built
Has lost its steep back stairs,
But the lone surviving cherry tree
Still bears fruit most years. 

Paul Telles’s poems have appeared in several online and print publications, including Rat’s Ass Review, BoomerLitMag, and cc&d.