ABANDONED

My address numbers are old and hanging crooked. My porch is dirty and unpainted. My windowpanes are broken, and glass lies on the brown. unmown grass. Down my crooked steps a cracked sidewalk shows the way to a tall oak tree. A tree that has half a rope hanging from it where a tree swing used to bs an abandoned lawnmower no longer works and rest by the gate. A once full vegetable garden is now full of weeds and bugs. My roof leaks and half the shingles are gone. I am unkept, unpainted and empty. A cardboard box sits in my yard a reminder of a day when I lost everything. A day not too long ago that will forever remind me of what can be no more.

Once I was brand new, I had a coat of beautiful white paint and my windows shined with sparkle. My steps were made of the finest wood and had iron rails. The sidewalk was smooth and even with flowers planted along the edge. The big oak tree was very majestic and had a large rope swing hanging from its strong branches. I had a white picket fence and iron gate that kept the dogs from my luscious green grass. I was full of happiness and laughter. My ten rooms were full of beautiful, elegant furnishings. There was music and dancing in the parlor. My kitchen smelled of tasty foods whose odors drifted out to every room in the house. My floors were imported hardwood that could outshine the brightest star. My living room was full of family gatherings and Christmas parties. I was happy, I was content, I needed nothing, and I had a family. I enjoyed my life for a long time and then it changed.

The family fell on hard times and had to put me up for sale. A sign was placed in my yard and everyday strangers would come to see me. Many boxes were loaded onto a truck and driven away. The first few years weren't bad, people would come by every week to see me. none every chose to come back. After years of not having a family, I began to grow old, no one wanted to buy an old house in such disarray. I sit here day after day waiting and hoping. Today a new sign was placed in my yard 'Scheduled for Demolition.' 'Coming soon Mini Mall.' I see the big bulldozer coming down the street. It pulls up to the old iron gate. Just then a car pulls up and a young girl jumps out. "Stop." she says. She slowly walks up to the gate, opens it. walks down the cracked sidewalk, up the crooked steps and whispers," I am home at last." With that she goes inside, closes the door and the music fills every room.