Selling the House ~

What will happen to the paintings
when the house is up for sale
and an auction's taking place?

Will strangers stand around
on hardwood floors
twisting scratches into varnished floors
as bids dislodge our silent storytellers
from walls they spoke from,
windows that opened
on worlds we longed for
and dreamed about?

Ah, won't all those
hand-clasped chins thrown back
and judgment noddings
frighten our poor shy
Maiden at the Stream,
fetching water as she did
for us daily to watch,
teaching us what beauty was,
and what it meant for us?

Had ever a day passed
without our glancing up at her
gladdened by her being there,
never thinking 

we could leave us.

What will we encounter
when feisty bargainers
stand sceptically calculating 
before making each prize their own,
then shuffling off with it, unconscious 

of the pain they had caused? 

Yes, and when that day did finally come

we ended up standing there, numb,  
staring at hooks and nails
in empty faded rectangles and squares
regretting we had let the paintings go, 

and were thus forced 

to begin the long bitter process

of having to learn 

to live without.