My Sleeping House

RDP Monday: BROOM

Gertrude Abercrombie

Brush away the cobwebs from  the dark corners in my attic?

Sweep away the dust that twinkles like far away stars in an inky black midnight sky from my cracked windows and scarred woodwork?

Open the doors, all of the doors even the ones that creak  and squeak on their rusted hinges all on their own?

Why on Earth would I take a broom to my house and risk waking it up? Can you tell me? Why would I do that?

Why?

Even a dead house deserves to rest in peace

no matter how awful it was in life.

 

The Dead End Road

RDP Monday: GLUM

It is an empty house

on a dead end road

the empty house is

overgrown with weeds and sticker bushes and infested with bugs

that could give you a nasty bite and oozing rashes for weeks maybe months at a time.

 

It is an empty house

on a dead end road where

nobody ever  heard wicked sly voices chanting and singing to them in the dark

of a sleepless night.

 

Nobody who lived or died in  this empty house

ever  swung an ax a their confused and bedeviled  spouses

or had children with horns and too many fingers and tails.

 

Beautiful trees were

brutally chopped down

so that this empty house

where nothing exciting ever happened

could be called a home.

 

The empty house

on the Dead End Road

is  now quietly falling to bits,

with no stories hidden inside of  it’s walls

buried in it’s basement,

discarded down the well  in it’s back yard.

 

It’s just an empty an lifeless  house

at the end of a dead end road infested with bugs and thorns.

Paradise In The Suburbs

Word of the Day Challenge: Paradisiac

Photo by Jeffrey Czum on Pexels.com

Jolyn Tallman lives on a street

where all of the houses look freshly painted

and all of the women bob their hair

and wear jewelry they bought on their last vacation

to Mexico or L.A. and

Labradoodles and cats sun themselves in their picture book  backyards.

 

The woman on Jolyn’s street belong to book clubs

and sniff their wine before they sip it

except for when they are alone

and no one is around to watch them

and applaud them for how cultured they are

with admiration beaming from their eyes.

 

Sometimes on Jolyn’s street

a visitor from another world stops by one of the houses

that always looks freshly painted

and the visitors all sit on the edge of their chairs,

with their hands clenched tightly in their laps

and smiles plastered on their faces until it’s time to leave

 

and when they leave

those visitors get into their cars

and roll the windows down

they turn the radio up

push their seats back  and in that moment

they find  Paradise in the suburbs.

The Curve In The Road

Putting My Feet in the Dirt Prompt#1- Creases and Curves

Landscape with Storm
Franz Von Stuck

Turn here

stop there

are you on the right track?

Are you absolutely  sure?

 

Proceed with caution

beware take care

are you going to fast? No?

Are you absolutely sure?

 

Are you reckless

feckless, don’t care if you jump the curb?

Are you concerned for the safety of others?

Yes? Are you absolutely sure?

 

Every line carved on my face

every crease etched across my brow

every sleepless night I’ve  watched the moon set

will have to be enough to show I cared.  I’m absolutely sure.