all the unpaid bills wrestling interest rates while past due dates wait with their boutonnieres and the slumping bike strangled with a lock that we forgot the combination to the old house drinks everything we hide and hums sad songs that keep us up all night with the doorknobs loose and the pipes that burst with the fuses blown and the taps reversed the calender requests a meeting to discuss the time we waste when would be good for you and the sidewalk cracks spell the way back home in one uninterrupted palindrome the old house keeps all of our receipts in envelopes secured with rubber bands oh the blinking snow and the dark dispersed with a smear removed with our taps reversed