Beaver County Auction
In Monaca, notices are taped
four or five deep on the screen doors.
Grass, knee-high, creeps up
the leg. I watch for poison ivy
and dog poop—peer through
broken panes of glass
for signs of life.
I take pictures, report
my observations, tell my investors
what I find unless there’s a sign
that reads—No Trespassing.
The client knows I won’t check
for unlocked doors, jokes
that I’m a bleeding heart.
I pull up to a home in Beaver Falls
where an old man sits
under a porch
with a caved-in roof—
get out of the car,
double-check the house number,
ask if I can look around
and take some pictures.
He spits: says
Only if you show me
your titties first—
laughs and laughs
until he chokes on saliva
and bad luck.
Janette Schafer is a poet, photographer, playwright, and realtor raised in Michigan and living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for 30 years. She holds an MFA in Poetry from Chatham University. She is the author of three collections of poetry and the chief editor of two poetry anthologies. Her writing and photographs have appeared in numerous journals, newspapers, and websites, including Vox Populi, The Missouri Review, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and Eunoia Review. She is a winner of the Academy of American Poets Prize.
