The Red House on Castle Street

Have you seen the red house on Castle Street?

The family in the red house is the first one you’ll meet.

There’s a friendly mother and stern father,

an older son and a young daughter,

with a freckled face and rosy cheeks,

blind to what happens at night in the red house on Castle Street.

They’ve lived in the house for only two months;

every day, the red house becomes yellow with fun,

but every night, when the children go to bed,

with dreams of blue skies dancing in their heads,

the house turns blue and black when the stern father

uses the mother to release all his anger.

Did you hear about the day when the girl with rosy cheeks

saw what happens at night in the red house on Castle Street?

The father’s anger had made the house blue & black for the night;

the daughter came out of her room, and couldn’t believe her sight:

the friendly mother turning the house red with the line on her wrist.

The daughter balled her little hand into a fist,

knocking the anger out of the man who would never be her father.

Dripping red from her fists, the young daughter

lost the red in her cheeks

after that night in the red house on Castle Street.

She could never again control her hands,

fingers trembling at the thought of the man

who took the red from her freckled cheeks

in the red house on Castle Street.