born door
Behind My Front Door
by Anne Born

I’m looking out the window now.
I’m new to this house.
I notice things I probably won’t think twice about soon.

I listen for all the different bird calls,
I look at the time on my clock when I hear the trains,
     hoping to find a logic to their timetable.
I watch the trashmen pick up on Tuesday mornings,
     their big green trucks are dull, plodding,
     when they pull up in front of the house.
I hear all the cars when they drive down the street.

It’s pretty quiet here in Michigan.
Not like in my apartment in New York.

I am looking out the window now,
The fat groundhog hasn’t come out yet today
From under the old shed out back,
For his ration of berries and grasses.
My concern is that I assume it’s a male animal
Probably because the thought of it gathering food for babies,
     in this weather, in this climate,
     is too hard to hold.
A squirrel finds a bit of water in the bird bath.

I’m looking out the window now,
Cars driving by, but just a few,
They keep going, mostly, the birds take no notice.
They will sing regardless.
Folks drive into their garage, then disappear
Into their house.
So many houses, like my house.

I’m looking out the window now.
I open it a bit to watch the snow falling.
The tops of the branches are white now.
It’s supposed to rain later.
Window closed.

I’m new to this house.

The front door is not the barrier to my going outside.

NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: I need a metronome to be able to write. I cue up Law & Order SVU, an Avengers movie I’ve seen, cooking shows, or something about tiny houses – that’s my background noise. It’s very difficult to write if I have to maintain the pace.

anne born

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Anne Born is an award-winning, New York and Niles, Michigan-based writer who has been writing stories and poetry since childhood. She blogs on The Backpack Press, Tumbleweed Pilgrim, and Medium, and her writing focuses on family and life in a big city after growing up in a small one. She is the author of A Marshmallow on the Bus, Prayer Beads on the Train, Waiting on a Platform, Turnstiles, and Local Color. Her latest book is Buen Camino! Tips from an American Pilgrim (The Backpack Press, December, 2017, now updated for 2020). Her short essay on the call to the Camino is included in It’s About Time, by Johnnie Walker (Redemptorist Pastoral Publications, 2019). She a contributor to the 2015 anthology, Love Her, Love Her Not: The Hillary Paradox, edited by Joanne Bamberger. Anne’s essay on her cousin’s collection of Nancy Drew novels was published in the Silver Birch Press Nancy Drew Anthology (2016). She is also curator of the Late Orphan Project and a former contributor to The Broad Side. You can follow her on Redbubble, Instagram, Twitter.