Rooms
Rooms, places in space, fashioned
Hidey-holes, four walls, a eiling, a
Floor, and a door, just like the one
I’m sat in now writing this piece.
Lonely rooms, empty rooms, spooky
Rooms, eerie rooms, ghostly rooms,
Unearthly rooms, weird rooms, secret
Rooms, echo rooms, captive rooms,
Wholesome rooms, loathsome rooms,
Keep the world at bay rooms.
Rooms that listen and rooms that
Breathe, rooms with a temper and
Rooms that sneeze. Rooms that time
Has quite forgot, rooms lived-in by
Who knows what?
What goes on in a room when we
Leave it I wonder. Does it settle down
To silence or does it perhaps reminisce
And regret our leaving? Does the space
Previously disturbed and displaced by
Our presence now spring back into place
Telling the room of a recurring vacancy,
An absence of life, and thus every reason
For lamentation?
Is the room welcoming or is it perhaps
Dispaching and eagar to see us gone?
Rooms of character, imagination, and
Attitude, magical rooms, tragic rooms.
Happy rooms, ‘do come again’ rooms,
Tea rooms, toy rooms, girls and boys
Rooms ...
The handle turns, the door ajar,
‘Please do come in’, ‘stay long or short’,
‘But stay at least a little while’, ‘your
Company is much admired’. The
Atmosphere is cool and still, ‘Believe
In ghosts’? ‘Well, soon you will’. The
Cat goes wild and tries to hide, the
Room is locked, you’re trapped inside.
Not every room behaves like this,
I don’t know why, ‘but there it is,
Some are worse, an’ some possessed,
Some are kindly, some are blessed.
Some have seen folk pass away, some
Have seen ... ‘I dare not say’.
Rooms that harbour things unknown,
Coffins, fingers, teeth and bones …
‘You heard a scream’? ‘What can it mean’?
‘There’s a month to go to Hallowe’en’.
© Joseph G Dawson
27/09/2019
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