A visit to a house with a man inside

If you didn’t see the man in the centre

of an empty room sitting on the wooden planks,

it doesn’t matter. We saw him

with his ojotas in front, his chest bare

his back hunched into a question mark.

He could have been a sculpture,

silent and dignified and made of stone,

but he spoke suddenly, a language unknown

darting his eyes in rapid observation.

The estate agent pushed us to a window

pointed to the mango trees outside,

the dragon fruit climbing, the azure pool,

and the sky laid with light.

We got used to the man and his sandals,

forgot his voice like one forgets a wall,

a door, or a crack in a ceiling.

Move on please the agent led us out,

we didn’t even turn to catch his gasp

all we heard were our feet patter

covering the gaps of the floorboards.

________

Maria Castro Dominguez is the author of ‘A Face in The Crowd’ her 2016 Erbacce–press winning collection. She won third prize in Brittle Star´s Poetry Competition in 2018, was finalist in the Stephen A DiBiase Poetry contest and joint first in the Orbis 185 Readers’ Award both in 2019. She has been published in Orbis, Obsessed With Pipework, Apogee, The Long-Islander Huntington Journal, London Grip and Popshot. She has a Bachelor’s degree in English philology.