Abandoned

Abandoned The house, it leans far to the right But it still looked determined to continue its fight Against time and weather and gravities pull Only dreams of the days when it’s windows were full Of clean clear glass and with curtains with frills And children who ran through it then out over the hills In search of adventure and caves full of gold Through green pastures and forests oh! The stories they told Cows in the barnyard calling for calf, Someone in the kitchen sharing a laugh With the children’s mother while she’s making the bread And a cat and her kittens search for a mouse that has fled Under the woodpile for its own safety sake The chickens and roosters, what a noise that they make And the cows and the horses add to the din It was such a nice house for a large family to live in. Then came the time when they all moved away None of them wanted to but no one could stay So they left the house empty and they were its heart And a house left in that way will soon fall apart The memories had echoed through the house for some years But they stopped when the rain fell through the house just like tears Windows were broken, the door off its hinge Weeds in the yard, paint on the walls, no not a tinge The well is now dry; the barn is no more The tears of the house have rotted the floor The chimney has fallen all down in a pile Even the wood of the porch is drawn up in a smile Windows without glass are like eyes that don’t see And nothing shows now like it all used to be One day it will die when the roof is laid low And into the earth like old bones it will go It’s so sad to see the house with its sad little lean With only imagination to show the way it had been.