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  • The Previous Owner
  • Jamie Lynn Heller (bio)

Our first house came withhis old hat, left hanging on a nailplaced for this purposejust inside the garage door.I bet it was his drivingor going-out-walking hat. [End Page 99] We'd heard he'd been taken to a home,so perhaps he wasn't aware enoughto remind them to get it for himthe last time he left.We figured out eventuallythat he'd rigged the garage doorto flip a switch igniting aChristmas tree bulb framed inits own light plate on the bedroom wall,probably so she would stop askingif he'd remembered to shut it.The neighbors shared he'd builttheir brick walkway as well as oursand the electrician kept sayingthings were "interesting" andhe'd "never seen that before"as he inspected the house.So we left his hathanging in our garageright where he'd carefully hung it.

Jamie Lynn Heller

Jamie Lynn Heller's poetry has appeared in the Flint Hills Review, Little Balkans Review, Avocat, and others. She is a devoted high school counselor in Lenexa, Kansas.

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