It's Still Life

That House

it’s for sale now,
a wooden stake hammered
into the ghost of pink climbing roses.

she married a butcher.
he did that thing that you always
hope happens to someone else.

he went out one afternoon
for a pack of smokes,
and never returned.

heart attack.

a year later – she jumped,
right off a multi-story carpark in town.

nobody claimed to know her.
but everyone knows that house.

been vacant for years,
its red front door is faded as dust.
it wants to hide, it seems, inside ivy,

and deep inside the ghost
of those pink climbing roses.

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Photo by Pavel Neznanov on Unsplash. ©Misky 2022 Shared with #amwriting on Twitter. Music accompaniment as suggested by Mr Bump.