Empty Home I'm standing in the empty lounge Looking out the window At the endless sea of faces Spread out on the nature strip and road The auctioneer is working It's a feeding frenzy of bidders Who will buy my father's home? I walk through its corridor Looking into each and every room Now bare of furniture, heart and soul So cold and lonely in this once home. My emotions are rising To the back of my throat Tears threaten to spill out Running down my cheeks As I recall all the love and laughter Mixed in with fear and pain So much past In these few walls. Strangers walk through Where I ran in my youth Inspecting each room anew While I try desperately to break free I'm torn between the happiness and horror This home brings both for me. The bidding war is over Someone wants this house They sign the papers in the kitchen Where we used to sit round the table Chatter, drink and eat I want to congratulate the purchaser But I also want to smash his face in How could he do this to me? I take one last look From the outside There's a part of me that's Happy to let go Another side who never will I say goodbye to the house of abuse And also to happy years. We drive away I hope and pray I can now live again Take from that house, my old home The good and precious The wealth and love Let the horror burn And the fear stay silent Within those walls of pain and shame. Let me be happy and free In my adulthood As I was never allowed In my childhood. Goodbye to my old street Old neighbourhood Will never live here again Move on, rebuild elsewhere Break the chains of the past And make me a happy future At long last.... � Elizabeth 25th April, 2001 "After both my parents passed away, we had the chore of selling the family home. This poem was written after the auction where we sold my childhood home. We weren't the type of family that moved around alot, so this was the only home we knew. There were lots of past memories amongst the walls - both happy and sad, joyful and tragicc. In this poem I describe my feelings as I'm standing there at the auction. Happy to let go, but still finding it hard, as my little Elizabeth will always live there." In dedication to my parents