The Big House

She was a modern, you know.

He, you know, dealt in land.

They maintained, you know, several gardens.

You know, when the wind blows, their flowers are famous.

Their house was well built, they say.

And they say the foundation had rock under it.

Some of the walls, they say, were two feet thick.

An artist, they say, designed the door handle.

Construction took I don’t know how long,

and I don’t know how many bedrooms.

They needed I don’t know how big a plan.

But the whole thing--I don’t know how--fell down.

They’re gone, they say, you know. I don’t know where.

From “An Oregon Message” (Harper & Row: $17.95, hardcover; $8.95, paperback; 144 pp.). This is the eighth collection from a poet who won the National Book Award in 1962 for “Traveling Through the Dark.” 1987, William Stafford, by permission.