Arson

The house down the street was set on fire a few days ago.



The next door neighbor said
that house has bad karma.
A man died in it,
Then a couple bought it and moved in with 3 kids,
all under 5, one with ALS.
The man got cancer.
He started abusing his wife.
She left without notice last summer.
One morning neighbors watched her
pack everything she could into a van.
By noon she was gone.
The husband, I was told,  followed the postman
around for weeks, asking for her forwarding address.
Then he, too, left.  The grass grew tall around the house,
and the leaves fell, blowing up on the porch.
Then the snow covered it all up
so it looked just like every other house
except for the notices, posted on the door.
Then, one day last week, it was set on fire.
Every fire truck and police officer in Poland
came to put out the flames on a morning of deep snow.
How do you know it was arson? I asked one of the cops.
There were footsteps leading up to the back door, he said.