GregQualls.com speaking outside the box….sometimes | Albuquerque, NM

The Unknown Tenant

So last Thursday I was having lunch with some friends when I got a phone call from Shannon letting me know that she had just got served (in the legal sense…not in the dance sense). Apparently she had been home minding her own business when someone rang our doorbell.

When Shannon answered, this guy handed her a stack of papers letting us know that the house we are renting is being foreclosed on. We got a copy of the legal paperwork since we are living at the house. In fact on the paperwork, we are listed as “the unknown tenant.” I had to laugh. It has the feeling of a Robert Frost poem.

The Unknown Tenant
by Greg Qualls

To the unknown tenant
How hard life must be

To the unknown tenant
The future is cloudy

To the unknown tenant
Your house might be sold

To the unknown tenant
You’ll be out in the cold

To the unknown tenant
Dream big and be strong

To the unknown tenant
um yeah we’re forclosing on your house and there isn’t anything that you can do about it because you’re just a tenant and not the owner. In fact we don’t even know your name. You’re nameless. That’s gotta suck.

It doesn’t flow as good as a Robert Frost poem…but I think it works. Anyways…we found out yesterday though that the owner got everything cleared up with the mortgage company. So things are back to normal. We aren’t having to move. So that is good.

But I will always remember the time that I was….the unknown tenant.