House of Cards

by Laura Levesque, April 2012

Patience and balance, balance and patience,
lessons learned to calm an unquiet mind.
But child, you cannot live there.
The slightest breeze, a cough, a sneeze,
vibrations of our own earth spinning.
They tumble, again and again.

I felt like the load bearing wall.
That house, it would hold no longer.
Evidence the foundation cracks,
the vermin taken over, our years there
wrecked and broken, strewn across the filthy
floor. Sticker on the door: abandoned.

The structure should have burned.
I wish he would have set it blazing.
I would have stared hard, rooted
to the spot where I fought, I fought
to keep us alive, cohesive, together.
But that just doesn’t matter anymore.

It was fragile as your cards, my love. I watch
you intently set them, over and over again-
your victory evident, long blond hair hanging
in your eyes. You only get them so high
before the slightest movement
decimates your treasure.

How do I make you understand?
Beloved one.  You are at once my tempest,
but also the bright blue sky above the meadow,
once your Storm has thrashed itself through.
No matter how I worked or toiled, my will
was not enough to keep those walls together.

© 2012 Laura Levesque

The deck of cards she’s using are Grateful Dead cards. Her name is Althea, after their famous song. The logo is called ‘Steal Your Face’. Via the great sub-prime mortgage swindle/fraud, trustee sale and robo-signed paperwork, Citibank stole my house. Where I lived, with my children, for ELEVEN YEARS. It was not a fancy house. It was 1200 square feet, and I was stalked, terrorized, harassed, and driven out eventually.

I negotiated with the government’s “Home Affordable Modification Program” for four long years. That was a SCAM. The Feds may have had good intentions, but they bailed out the Banks that were too big to fail. They didn’t bail out me, they drove me out of my home, then took it away via a process that involved no legal protection, because I lived in Virginia. My family bailed me out, by helping me with a down payment, and securing a property in West Virginia, an estate sale. A much sounder, more secure, well-built home. Built to last, to survive storms, and sieges, in whatever form they come.

I am biding my time, patiently, waiting for the Class Action lawsuit. I can assure you, I will not settle for a few thousand dollars, which is what they are starting to offer others who have been through this same devastating loss. We are not thieves. And Corporations are not people. However, they are also not above the LAW. They should be prosecuted for BREAKING STATE AND FEDERAL LAWS.

*From the Famous Song, which is copyright protected, and not allowed to be shared.

John Mellencamp- Rain on the Scarecrow

“The crops that grew last summer/ weren’t enough to pay the loans/ Couldn’t buy the seed to plant this spring/ and the Farmer’s Bank Foreclosed/ Called my old friend Schepman up to auction off the land/ He said John it’s just my job and I hope you understand/ Hey calling it your job ol’ hoss sure don’t make it right/ But if you want me to I’ll say a prayer for your soul tonight”

I pose the question: where are the songs about the sub-prime mortgage swindle that crashed the United States Economy, and has created more vacant houses, as of 2012, than homeless people in the U.S.? Who is singing that song or raising awareness about this? Well, me, for starters. With a poem. Anyone have a song? Contact me via WordPress, or Facebook if you are a Poet friend or Musician.