I drive by you every day

But I saw finally saw you for once

I don't know if it was the sun

I don't know if it was the smoke

I don't know if it was the lights

But as I looked out the passenger window

I saw you

Weathered and beaten

Crumbling and chipped

And where others may see a poor black house

Others may see a slum needing to be torn down

Others may see a drug hole

I saw beauty

The grace in a building still standing

After so much time

A house that just needed some love

A home of people who needed some love

I saw white chipped paint

Telling a story

What did each missing piece mean?

Where there water balloon fights?

Sing-n-a-miss baseballs?

A grill too close to the house?

A rocking chair bumping against the wall?

There could be so much more

That I would never know

And as I drove by that house

I saw one more chip fall

And wondered when it would all be wiped clean

Ready for a new set of paint

And a new story

Inspiration: An old, weathered house I saw on my way home from a Stanford tour.