Did you ever feel
up in the air —
not floating cloud-like,
not suspended in iridescence
like the hummingbird hungrily
at nectar,
not lazy-winged like
the August butterfly,
but trapped
on unmoving legs,
your eyes,
— soul-windows, they say —
staring, as if in unbelief,
and you wonder
are you outside looking in
or inside looking out
as
emptiness flows through you,
misfit,
puzzle to yourself
and passersby,
monument to the improbable,
blaring your incongruence,
a breath away from cracking?
Linked to Dan Antion’s Thursday Doors Writing Challenge,
with yet more thanks to photographer S.W. Berg.
Oddments 
May 21, 2025 at 5:32 pm
Can you picture the write-up for this house: “Unobstructed views. A loft-like feeling.” What they don’t say: Watch your step! 😧😆
May 21, 2025 at 5:40 pm
I like the part about the loft-like feeling! Actually, I think you’ve got a great idea for Dan’s challenge! You should write the realtor’s listing! Think of telling the prospective buyers how they should wipe their feet! I love it, and you haven’t even written the whole thing yet!
May 21, 2025 at 5:56 pm
hah! I will leave the writing part to all of you who do it so well! But thank you.
May 21, 2025 at 6:23 pm
Oh, too bad. I think you’d have come up with something hilarious!
May 21, 2025 at 8:13 pm
Lois, I think Maureen is right, You should prepare the Real Estate Listing.
May 21, 2025 at 8:21 pm
I would much rather read all the great poems and stories. But, thanks, Dan.
May 21, 2025 at 8:40 pm
Hear, hear!
May 21, 2025 at 5:54 pm
Holey moley, this house will need one helluva staircase, won’t it? Or an elevator! I don’t know about you Maureen, but if that’s how my home had to be in order to be safe, we’d have to move.
LOVE your poem!
Ginger🦋
May 21, 2025 at 6:43 pm
Thanks, Ginger! This photo sure invites a lot of head-scratching, doesn’t it? Yes, quite the staircase! I was thinking maybe a trampoline at front and back doors. If you got enough power into your jumping, you could catapult yourself right into that front door.
May 21, 2025 at 7:22 pm
(Truly) “Nestled in the pines” lol! Your excellent poem reminds me of my first marriage when 2 years into it… (Nuff said!)
May 21, 2025 at 8:39 pm
Oh, dear. Two years can do it!
May 21, 2025 at 8:19 pm
As I study the image, I wonder if I’d be better off on the inside looking out or the outside looking in. Going through your poem, I feel like that hummingbird-flapping hard, going nowhere but with a sense of purpose.
I wonder if they are simply rising it, or if they’re planning to slide it onto higher ground.
May 21, 2025 at 8:22 pm
Oh, Dan–the key word here being ‘slide.’ 😧😆
May 21, 2025 at 8:41 pm
We might never know what they did with this house, but we sure have a lot of writers’ ideas about it!
May 21, 2025 at 10:06 pm
I love this photo and your interpretation of it fits so well. I wasn’t quite sure how to approach it. The idea of not fitting together quite right captures the feeling. (K)
May 21, 2025 at 10:50 pm
Thanks, Kerfe! I liked this photo a lot, and I felt it was trying to say something but I couldn’t quite catch it. (I think people say the same thing about me.)
May 22, 2025 at 11:42 am
That’s true of me as well.
May 22, 2025 at 9:59 am
An excellent poem, Maureen 💓
May 22, 2025 at 10:48 am
Thanks, Robbie!
May 22, 2025 at 10:58 am
The view could not entice me to live on those wooden stilts. Nope. 🙂 Nice words though.
May 22, 2025 at 11:43 am
Thank, Judy! Indeed not much one can say for the view!