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"Clearing the House"

By Rebecca Kaiser GibsonPosted Tuesday, March 27, 2007, at 7:17 AM ET

Click here to listen to Rebecca Kaiser Gibson read this poem.

They drank whiskey in the fifties
at canasta, nuts in napkins,
cocktail platters placed on marble
splurged-on antique acquisitions,
e.g., Scottish clock with tin facade
of ancient etched-in sun and moon
on nearly flat horizon, housed
in trim American maple. They lived
as though the house was theirs,
although it antedated them
and emptied of remains, remains.

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Rebecca Kaiser Gibson teaches poetry and writing at Tufts University. Her chapbooks are Admit the Peacock and Inside the Exhibition.

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