I read the poem from the book Hallmark by Emily Isaacson, of the story of how the Smith family house had burned to the ground one night when a vagrant snuck in and caused a fire. The Smith family was my grandparents who lived on Esplanade, and the house on their one million dollar estate in Hemet, California overlooking the San Jacinto Valley was left empty after they died. The poem is told from the perspective of the vagrant, who refers to themselves as a mouse. The title is in reference to Margaret Atwood, aptly called ``What We Found Over Breakfast``in reference to her book Morning in the Burned House.
Here is the poem:
What We Found Over Breakfast
By candlelight I pen this solemn note,
to the master and the mistress of this house,
I am no bigger than a field mouse,
but I have sailed upon the seven seas,
and now—what has become of me—
I cannot speak for misery—
It was in a moment of charm
that I accepted the old house with open arms.
This burned-down house—
the morning finds but none too soon—
was charred by my own match;
a fiddler’s tune I played upon the thatch,
your rooftop bearing me, it let me stay,
but now that mournful resonance
is but insoluble dissonance.
If I should run from you
I must confess
that it was I who fell from grace
with just one note—
upon your blackened cinders
grand old house, I stand,
with now an inextinguished hand.
With terror, I would flee
into the night—
I would desist from digging at the site
of one more grave—
the Esplanade—
a place that once was loved
lies in unbeguiling ashes
not caused by anyone excepting me.
A coward, I would bow
to take my strap—
I would stretch out my hand
at curt command
but would the haunting eyes
that looked out o’er the plains
be no more furious distain.
Emily
