The bright appraisers

On a hot day four men came into my house,
jeering at my new carpet in the hall, chucklingly
trampling up the rickety staircase, disdainfully 
walking over the great room, ticking off  "high 
ceilings which we don't need", boredly staring 
around the attic (later in their report declaring 
the entirely unexamined roofing beyond repair), 
not even bothering to enter my pretty room;
good-humoredly stepping out the front door, 
explaining they would, graciously, not subtract 
demolition cost from plot value because
that would leave me with a negative number, 
responding to my dumbfounded query whether 
they had, then, found the whole structure to be 
unsound with, amidst laughter, the hilarious 
statement that "we can't look into the walls!"

6. July / 1. November 2009