The Empty Cottage Poem by John Rickell

Time long since I came
stone porch and church-pew seats
Chinese matting in the hall
broad planks to make the floor
black and white, alternate,
poppies papered on the wall
beside green-tread stairs,
banisters white and black.
Three bedrooms from the landing
Ghosts of time long gone
drifting in the silent noon.
Children in the bathroom
huge, Victorian, cast in iron,
gone.....plastic now
window low and wide
alone as never once before,
memories...do not stay long
a daughter, many times a mother
now grandma.....
gasped her first, crying to the night
her sister sleeping in the moonlight.
The room bare, cold undressed;
fragrance from the past,
scents of skin in love gave warmth,
warmth of remembered breasts
eager thighs and straining muscles
broke the magic spell,
I turned, fled the scene.
No more to seek or savour
this time so long since gone.