FOR SALE

			
How long have you been left alone?
I see and feel your emptiness.
Your quiet rooms are listening
for a sound I cannot make.
November winds find entry
through a broken French door pane.
Your kitchen, dim in the waning light,
is useless now, dumbwaiter still.

The steep back stairs were dark at night - 
did the children carry a lamp to bed?
Did they love to watch the lake on stormy days?
Their presence lingers in the air, 
their voices whisper just beyond my hearing.

Did servants live on the high third floor,
a girl to cook and serve the meals,
someone to stack the cords of wood 
and keep each fireplace crackling warm?
Their pride in you still shows 
though they have gone their ways.
But you, still elegant, stand alone,
no lives entwined with yours
to give you purpose.

I knew as soon as I saw your face,
someone who needed you has died.