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# The Prettiest House on Jutland Road | by A'Ja Lyons
- URL: https://www.medusarising.org/the-prettiest-house-on-jutland-road-by-aja-lyons/
- Published: 2025-06-17T16:13:41.000Z
- Updated: 2025-06-17T16:13:40.000Z
- Description: The house looked lovely yet my grandmother never / repaired the developing foundation issue
- Author: Medusa Rising
- Tags: Womens Poetry

Neighbors only saw the ivy plants,  
manicured lawn, and white ash tree  
I wonder if pink siding was all the rage  
in 1960 when the house was built  
It hadn’t been updated since  
  
My grandparents bought it  
I wonder why she left him but  
stayed there where he hit her  
likely because it was her home,  
her daughter’s home/my mother’s home,  
my childhood home  
The biggest and prettiest anyone  
in our family ever owned  
  
The house was one of the few with a carport  
but the only one with burglar bars  
I read my mother’s diaries, she didn’t get  
to go out or too far often, either  
I wonder if she ever tried to leave  
  
My mother never left, big as her light was  
it became dimmed by the darkness inside  
I don’t wonder why she was heavy (like me)  
Enough to eat from a kitchen only big enough  
for one cook, to fill a void created by cruel tongue  
  
I wonder if my mother ever resisted  
and received a heavy hand or belt  
or if tongue lashings were tough  
enough to make her comply  
The house looked lovely yet my grandmother never   
repaired the developing foundation issue  
  
The roof caved in and knocked my mother down to the vinyl floor.  
  
Stress on her heart blocked blood flow  
Six feet deep in dirt was her only resting place  
The only stillness in the dust  
lining bookshelves and desk drawers  
documents unseen in decades  
Traps restricted rodent reproduction  
The only growth the mold on the air vents  
  
The pink doghouse in the backyard  
matched the siding  
My first dog was a Chow Chow  
she ran away before I did  

![Photo of a one-storey house with two-car carport, palm and live oak trees, and a white pole fence and garbage can awaiting collection..](https://storage.ghost.io/c/65/75/6575a206-4a74-4088-a0fc-76d31c2a9ab8/content/images/2025/05/1000004408.jpg)

Photo credit A'Ja Lyons

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A'Ja Lyons is a contributing [editor at Medusa Rising](https://www.medusarising.org/about/).