The Vacant Room

The house has many rooms
Each has a purpose
Each filled as required
Each furnished for a job
One room for heating
One room for cooling
One for nourishment
And many others besides

But at the top of the house,
There’s a room filled with memories
From the beginning it was filled
With the highlights of life
But now the house grows older
The room is being emptied
One memory at a time
As the days move onward

Now the rooms below are failing
Each system damaged beyond repair
In a race before the upper room
Is emptied of all it holds
The walls are weak and warping
The foundation cracked and crumbling
The floors are bowed and sagging
The house will cave in soon

But finally, one day
The upper room is empty
Of all the long-held memories
Every photo, every note

The room is full of spiders,
Cobwebs, dirt, and mildew
Broken windows, nothing useful
Every item now long gone

A vacant room for a broken body
The mind is empty, all is forgotten,
But the body struggles to carry onward
Beyond all reason, no memories left

And on that final day,
The body will fail forever
But the mind will be unable
To comprehend the end

Within the vacant room….
Locked away within….