For Sale By Owner

Abstract

A sign has appeared in our front yard, For Sale By Owner, white letters on stiff red cardboard, tacked to a wooden pole and hammered into the grass by my father. He has written our telephone number into the blank space on the bottom of the sign, and the whole appearance of it the wobbly sign, the careful black numbers, the clear plastic sheeting stapled by my mother so autumn rains won't run the ink has a whiff of shame about it. There's