Emptiness lurks behind the dark windows
watching the road for one to relieve its fate
that fills the weathered walls
and hangs over its head with an air of decay.
There was a time when it was not
when the now abandoned rooms rang with laughter and songs
when the floorboards shook with the rushing feet
of children racing to welcome their father home.
But time sent those voices away to heed the call
their destiny makes. How unkind it had been
to the love breathing on the hearts
that in this once-upon-a-time home dwelled.
Outside it sees Bleeding Hearts rising
from overgrown grass, honeysuckle gone wild,
wrapped around the rusted mailbox hiding
old secrets with their pure flowers and sweet fragrance.
For DVERSE POETS' PUBS' Looking Out/Looking In prompt which asks the community to write about windows. The picture above was taken from inside the hunting lodge in Borderland State Park. The bottom picture shows an old mailbox in front of an abandoned home somewhere in rural Maine. That house inspired the poem.
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MY WALL 
it’s easy for hopes to be dashed, fine poem, it has many reminders in it and lessons
Thanks. 🙂
Poignant and oh so true of many a place. I especially love “How unkind it had been
to the love breathing on the hearts
that in this once-upon-a-time home dwelled.”..and that still grows the honeysuckle!
This is wonderful! I especially love their third stanza. Abandoned homesteads and overgrown yards…sometimes with old old farm tools or rakes…all are heartrending. Your photos are wonderful and your words of explanation, in terms of motivation, heartfelt. If only walls could talk…
Thank you so much for posting this to the prompt!
Should say, I especially love the third stanza. Fingers slipped on the keys! 😦
Someone else just wrote of an abandoned building, too, and your poem also has such poignancy. There are so many stories in those walls. I think it would be great to use such a setting for the genesis of a novel or short story.
We drive by a tiny dot on the map of Colorado each year named Deerfield. All that remains are two weathered, disintegrating, wood buildings. I always wonder what
was here long ago, in their heyday…what tales could be told.
Perfect flower to have growning in this scene. Nicely done!
There are so many stories in places…there is a sadness when a place that was the hub of a family life becomes empty…you wove mood and story very well looking out the window.
This is haunting and poignant. I love the mention of ‘Bleeding Hearts’ so apt for the setting.
Love the pics. The poem is poignant as are most abandoned places. One wonders about the stories they would have to tell.
Thanks, Toni. Abandoned places are, indeed, rich inspirations for writing. 🙂