How Are You?

Author’s photo

The walls have collapsed
at the abandoned house
where we name our feelings.

Now it’s all floorboards &
sorrow & sky, snow
collecting in the cellar.

It’s no more a home but
the shadow of one,
paint peeling the way our skin

also aches to let this go.
I sit in the empty living room
not living, looking into a forest

under a clouded sky.
“I’m feeling despair,” I say
to a passing chickadee

& the foundation creaks
beneath my bones.

Remember when I pinned this post from Writers & Artists? I came back to it later that afternoon and drafted a poem. I think it’s a fantastic prompt and more people should try it.

For my part, I’m not so hot at naming emotions (so says my therapist) but it’s something I’m working on. Also of note, the house pictured has collapsed even further since that photo was taken. Only the front wall now—a facade and nothing more.