I am one of Kellie Elmore’s writing bandits at freewrite Friday. Kellie invites all who would like to participate to please join her. Rules are simple. Follow her prompt and write whatever comes to mind. Sometimes she will provide a word prompt, a phrase prompt or like today an image prompt. There is no time limit so even if you miss the Friday, the writing window is always open. New here? Read the intro.
Here is Kellie’s latest FWF prompt:
This house has a story…what is it?
Image Credit: We Heart It
Having passed by the old place seemingly hundreds of times, today I decided to stop. This would be my last time. There are too many ghosts wandering its inner halls, too many secrets that need not be aired—our secrets. Nothing should remain for nothing’s left to be shared. With time’s passing has come the hour to finally let go. Tomorrow the bulldoziers will arrive at 6 A.M. to demolish what remains standing, it will soon be gone. At least outwardly anyway.
Memories will remain along its grounds that can never be bulldozed down. Some good. Some not so good. It is called life and in that house, overall life was good. Happiness and heartache can be measured with each board readied for its original construction. Great-granddaddy toiled and labored felling trees for just the right wood to be milled and planked. Stone blocks were hauled uphill from the creek below and set in for a solid foundation.
I can still sense the aromas from the back kitchen—hot apple pies, cinnamon spiced cider, homemade breads—that make my mouth water and stomach churn simply from hungering for the good ol’ days. Sounds of laughing in the backyard with the screen door slamming over and over again bring on a smile and tears at the same time.
Voices echo from the kitchen window calling me inside for the last time.
Echoes…
Echoes through broken glass
Whisper of times long past
Love’s endurance, young lives lost
Survival whatever the cost
Echoes within dawn’s pale light
Reveal a hurrisome sight
Early morn kitchen chores
Shadow sunny outdoors
Echoes in scorching, noonday heat
Bare tired, aching body and feet
Needing a shady place to rest
Leaves any desire hard pressed
Echoes when day is done
Hover ‘round the setting sun
Toil ’n’ labor at last o’er
When day’s light is no more
Echoes of the whippoorwills
Pierce the air across the fields
Visions of standing hand-in-hand
Long for a shooting star to land
Echoes of voices in my head
Forever alive, never dead
Wooden structure may be gone
Memories live on and on
Time for parting words to be said
Filled with echoes of joy, not dread
‘Tis the end of an old way
Time to begin a new day
©2014 catnipoflife
Sharla Lee Shults
Other Writing Bandits to Visit:
catnipoflife 
What a lovely post and the poem brings the house alive, I can almost see it when it was alive with all the vegetation, birds and family around. Your poetry is really beautiful!!
Sad when old houses full of such wonderful memories are no longer lived in and disappear. You’ve given the photograph life and meaning.
I experience a sense of sadness as I read this. Sadness that a house with so many good memories should be bulldozed. Enjoyed reading your contribution this week.
Hi! I made it here to check out your picture prompt write.
Such nice detail in your paragraph, sad but full of past life.
Your poem is especially good;
Echoes, I like that. But what I really like is the verse …
echoes of the whippoorwills, pierce the air across the fields,
visions of standing hand in hand, long for a shooting star to land.
That is precious! Thanks!
What a wonderful old house I would have loved to add to its history and story by living there