I was walking in the country one day 
along the railroad track.
I stopped by an old farmhouse with it's
shingles broken and black.
I suppose I've passed it a hundred times
but I always stop for a minute,
and look at the house , the tragic house
the house with nobody in it.

I had never seen a true haunted house
but I hear there are such things,
they hold the talk of spirits,thier mystery,
and the erieness that Halloween brings.
I know this house isn't haunted
but I wish it were, I do.
Then it would'nt be so lonely
if it had a ghost or two.

This house along the railroad track,
it needs a dozen panes of glass.
And someone ought to weed the walk,
take a mower to the grass.
It needs new paint and shingles,
the vines should be trimmed and tied.
But what it needs most of all.....
is some people living inside.

If I had alot of money and all my debts were paid.
I'd go to work on it with a brush, saw and a spade.
I'd buy that old house.
Fix it the way it used to be.
I'd find some people who wanted a home,
where they could live happily.

Now , a new house standing empty,
with open windows and door,
looks idle, like a hat on a shelf
in a clothing store.
Nothing mournful about it
cannot be sad and lone,
for the lack of something within,
something it has never known.

But a house that has done ,
what a house should do,
a house that has sheltered life.
A house that has wrapped it's loving wooden arms
around a man and his wife.
A house that has echoed a babies laugh,           
held up it's stumbling feet, 
it's the saddest sight, when left alone
that your eye's could ever meet.

So whenever I go by the house,
the house along the track.
I never go by without stopping........
and looking back.
Yet it hurts me to look at a crumbeling roof,
the shutters falling apart.
For I can't help but think,
the poor old house, 
is a House with a Broken Heart.

Micheal L Conover
09/22/02
MrToad8623@aol.com