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Sketchbook

a journal for eastern and western forms

 

Ekphrastic Free Verse ~ This Old House

John Daleiden, US

 

 

Old Farm, Dunn County, Wisconsin ~ Wikipedia
 

 

This Old House

Are there ghosts here now that could tell
tales about the lives of people
who inhabited this old house?
Undoubtedly, they were farm folks

a man, his wife and their children

oh, lots of children, their voices
raucous with laughter, their play toys
scattered here and there in each room.
But nothing is left
the windows
smashed long ago...the door missing...
the floor joist rotted and sagging...
the roof of the summer kitchen
fallen in...debris  littering
the once tidy floor where women
cooked and served family meals each day.
Who knows what happened in this house?
Did the wife hang white lace curtains
in each window and sweep the floors
with the care of  a matriarch
destined for the oblivion
of forgotten generations?

 

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