Structurally Unsound

On each of the two outside walls in our living room, there is a long, thick, patched crack like a lightning bolt in the poured concrete. Some parts of these, under the layers of plaster and paint, must be very deep and wide; if you rap your knuckles against them, you hear a light, hollow sound, not the thud of hitting solid concrete. When it rains for a long time, the crack under the window lets moisture in, turning the paint shiny and tacky. Tonight my attention drifted while I was watching a movie, and I noticed hairline cracks in the paint over these bulging scars in the wall. It has been very, very cold outside. The ground is swollen with frost.

The earth is trying to come in.

(This is not what I asked for.)