What could we learn from these four walls
If we just listened to what they know?


Would they tell of the horrors that they had witnessed –
the anger, the sorrow, the pain?
Would they shudder to recall the hatred,
the violence and the murder
that caused their essence to be tainted?
Would they weep as they spoke of stains and peeling paint
or of petty arguments over electricity?
Arguments that tore relationships apart.


Or would they smile to remember
the secrets, gossip and games of Never Have I Ever shared over dinner parties;
the posters that clothed them and filled them with beauty and colour;
the loud laughter and music
reverberating through the plaster and cement
to become a part of them?


The walls are a part of every family that resides within them -
the black sheep; the forgotten daughter
who sees all but is never acknowledged.
They willingly open themselves to pain and heartbreak, joy and friendship.
They alone have seen how the world has truly changed,
without ever going anywhere.