after you were both born
through the front door, this house
settled itself around us, cradled
your childhood in arms of plaster and lathe
came alive with the thrum and pulse
of four hearts beating, a family
a family
a family
a family
each one of us crucial
to the structural integrity
of the whole
but walls can’t keep
the cancer out
after her body was borne
through the front door, this house
groaned beneath the weight
of our collective sorrow
each room shuddered, fibrillating
its wooden bones aching
the memory of us, haunting
the cobweb corners
like a mind tormented