Thursday, June 16, 2005

The Pigeon House (for Gary)

On the corner down the street there's a place we seldom meet.
Except this once for a clandestine mission to capture the image of a place we call...
The Pigeon House


The pigeon house is but a shell.
You look inside and see...well...
Open walls, and holes in the roof.
I've even spied a squirrel crawling into one of them back to its little hideaway.

What else can there be?
Piles of pigeon dung piled a foot high,


a statue of St. Francis, and a few mean dogs.
A lawn begging care and perhaps the most ironic and mysterious of all given the condition of the house:
a HandyMan Van parked in the driveway.
(will post photo at soonest opportunity)


And what is this I see? An apparition? Is this house haunted?

No, it's only a duck light in the window
whose clothes change depending on the holiday.
At Easter, he wears a bonnet ,
At x-mas a santa suit,
and for the 4th of July he has a red white and blue scarf.
What is he wearing right now? Can you see?

We all have our rituals it seems even if we can't be bothered to mow the lawn...
and some among us like feeding the pigeons and we don't even notice the poop!


Says Peter the Pigeon: "I think I'll stay a while."


Coo! Coo! Who are you?!

We live here, what's your problem?!

Addendum:
Seriously folks, this is truly a Pigeon House in more than one sense- they literally live in the house. We happen to meet someone who lives in the condo building next door. Their back porch faces the back side of the PH. I only wish I could get a shot of what I saw from his back porch to show you. Not for the faint of heart.

True Story:
The guy we know who lives next door actually approached the woman who lives there to ask her to please just please stop feeding the pigeons.
He said, "Doesn't all the mess (translation pigeon poop) bother you?"
She said, "Oh, I don't notice it."
He said, "Well, can you please stop anyway?"
She said, "Oh, I am only feeding them so I can catch one. After I catch one, I'll stop."


See Gary, it could be worse!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love the post! I guess there could be worse things, but it makes me wonder why she wants to catch a pigeon and what she would do with it once she caught it!

christine said...

What a cute little house. If the pigeon lady ever dies I want that house. It's adorable!

Becky said...

Makes me think of the cow house. When Tim and I started dating we drove by this old farm house that was fenced in as part of a pasture, and the cows would stand in the doorways and look out the windows. So we named it the cow house. However, there was no crazy lady feeding the cows. I think that if I were to go crazy and start feeding an animal so it inhabited my home it should be a giraffe since I have such a tall house.

Gary said...

Overheard at the "Pigeon House" while Jocelyn is talking to the eccentic old lady who lives there and a pigeon poops on Jocylyn's head.

Jocelyn "Damn! One of your pigeons pooped on me. Have you got any toilet paper?"

Old Lady "It will be miles away by now.."

I think more than the house has a few screws loose!

Jocelyn said...

Chris- I agree it's a cute house, but it will probably end up leveled due to neglect. I suppose you never know though!

I hope some don't think I'm a meanie picking on all these people's houses lately. I know there are more important things going on in the world- this is just a houseblog so I tend to focus on those issues.

I just had to say this, my conscience was bothering me!

(And my house isn't perfect either)

rock strongo said...

there's a house at the corner of Hoyne and Schiller in wicker park, my wife and i used to walk by it all the time; it's all run down and looks pretty empty. One night as we were walking by we saw a whole family of raccoons climbing into the roof over the porch and probably into the house. From that moment on that place is now known as the "raccoon house". Someone put a big fence around it back in march before we moved, when i last checked a month ago or so, it was still there and nothing had been done to the house. The place looks past the point of saving, i'm sure it'll be torn down soon since it's sitting on some prime real estate.

Darlene said...

What a fascinating post! I agree with chrisc, the house is cute, but the iron fence around it doesn't fit in. Normally a place like that should have a more picturesque fence, perhaps with white slats, like a picket fence. To me, there should only be iron fences around larger buildings, either cultural institutes, or homes where people of affluence live.

The first thing that struck me, however, was exactly what trissai said. Why in the world would she want to catch a pigeon, and what in world would she do with it? Please, could you ask her? I'm intrigued!

Jocelyn said...

Dralene-
Honestly, to use a crude expression, I think she was just blowing smoke up his butt when she said that because she could have caught one by now (almost anyone could catch a pigeon around here if you put forth a wee bit of effort).

If I ever get an opportunity, I may ask her if she caught one and see what she says. They really do have mean dogs there though. I know personally someone whose daughter got bitten by ones of their dogs and another person whose dog's nose was bitten through their fence!