Dear Ellen,
Yes, that's the magic of the abandoned. You want questions. Questions about the people. But you know, if the truth be told, I'm not nearly so interested in the people as in the things the people leave behind.
I walk through a cold yard of dead Tennessee grass, but no one has mowed or tended this yard in a good while. In the upstairs there are two rusted bed frames and some marbles. A closet with rusted hangers and a decaying Time magazine. A side porch that will be gone the next time we pass by here.
I stand in a foundation that's all that's left of a springhouse. I hope no one ever disturbs it and it can dissolve into the Tennessee dirt all by itself.
-Monterey, Route 27 - Roane County, Tennessee