Did You Know

I am alive,

my walls expand and contract

taking breaths to keep me together.

I am struggling

to hold memories intact for future

generations so that they too can

feel my presence and all that lived

within my structure. My paint blisters,

flakes off leaving me defenseless against

the sun’s brutal rays. Burning my raw wooden

skin, letting me peel away to tender layers

that lay underneath. Exposing my emotions

to a cruel nature that lashes out at me

with no mercy.

I am forgotten,

like old possessions that are no longer desired.

No one remembers my existence except

the errant souls who live under my sagging

tattered roof. Missing shingles, blown away by

harsh winds, plywood decking scratched by angry

limbs as they attempt to enter this sanctuary.

I watch the old highway

through half shuttered eyes, day after day,

month after month, year after year, the traffic

passes without seeing my plight. One set of blue eyes

makes contact with my broken glass soul.

A single tear escapes those aquamarine orbs.

I am no longer forgotten.