For this Poetics Prompt I want us to be voyeurs, peeping through windows and doors of a house One that has no family connections, no memories of our own to call upon .

Every town should have a haunted house,
It’s a requirement of Nature.
A kid’s rite of passage.

There must be porches and sunken cellarways,
Tattered curtains that filter shadows,
And always an attic.

Daring boys, in front of girls, ensures them company.
Tiptoes after dark with widened eyes,
As cobwebs ensnare the brave.

The ‘nothing’ inside holds a static charge,
Lonely walls, crowd any investigator,
And the wind does the rest.

A final dash and leap for your life
Licenses the survivors to conjure
Any tale they want- rumored ripples.

No police report of missing children needed.
Yet, year after year, they’ll grow in numbers
Until, the property is razed.

Every town should have a haunted house.
It’s a requirement of Nature.
And, all kids’ rite of passage.


https://dversepoets.com/2021/08/10/poetics-outside-looking-in/