House by the Railroad, by Mark A. Murphy

House by the Railroad, by Edward Hopper (USA) 1925.

House by the Railroad
​
This old house peers into us as we peer into it
like Norman Bates 
except this Victorian mansion
painted by Edward Hopper in 1925

harbours its own lewd and violent secrets 
beyond the railroad tracks
where the human creature never ventures
never saves the day

beyond the fashionable galleries
of New York
where Miss Lonelyhearts will never stir
never get a look in 
 
beyond the dreams and head games of our own
aesthetics
where we see the flesh of improbability
stripped bare

one white wooden building, unhinged
in the late afternoon 
no more blood feuds
no tears

where the disassociated mind remembers 
and forgets 
the puritanical God of childhood
So sorrow seeks sorrow

inevitable 
as the emptiness
of a birdless 
sky

Mark A. Murphy

Mark A. Murphy was born in 1969 in the UK. His poetry publications include Tin Cat Alley (1996), Our Little Bit of Immortality (2011), Night-watch Man & Muse (2013) and his next full length collection, Night Wanderer’s Plea is pending from Waterloo Press, UK. His latest collection, To Nora, A Singer of Sad Songs is to be published this year by Clare Songbirds Publishing House in America. He is currently looking for a publisher for his collection of epigrams, Little Known Aphorisms and he is now also working on a full length collection of ekphrastic poems, Word Painting. His poems have been published in 18 countries in over 200 journals in print and online.