The house is in need of paint, father

Plaster peels off the walls

The verandah stares vacant and blank

No life within it’s halls.

It’s just a house I said to myself

As I passed down the road

Just a house abandoned and dark

That once housed our souls.

How can it be ‘just a house’

I thought again as I gazed at it

This is the house where you died

And the home where we lived.

So do not laugh if you find me there

Gazing back in time and space

There are houses and then there are houses

Not all of them broker peace.

Taunt me not if I see my childhood

Etched on every parapet and sill

I may grow in years but am none the wiser

And this little girl needs you still.