The kitchen floor

The workers who gutted the house didn’t touch the kitchen floor

They pulled up every other one

Except this 

Why?

The handyman I thought would come

Never did

So it became our task

First the thick wedges of tile and the layer underneath it

Gave way to more layers – linoleum, and more linoleum, and more tile

Five layers to the subfloor

They kept adding them on, the people who lived here before

Just covered over the old floor

Time after time

Covered over the stains

Covered over the scrapes

Covered over the torn parts

The damage

And every time things could be clean and neat for a while

Every layer on top brought a reprieve, hope, newness

And with each layer the people felt good for a while

(Until they were compelled to do it again)

But what was underneath never changed

Covering it over never changed what was underneath

Dust, dirt, mold, decay, rot