House with Many Doors

 HOUSE WITH MANY DOORS

Carol Sheppard

6/23/2020

I live in a house with many doors.

Some are open. Some are closed

Behind each door is a room of light,

or darkness, of varying degrees,

From brightness as blinding as the sun

 to a darkness blacker than a night

with no stars in the deepest forest. 

Just when I’m complacent, I think
I’ve seen every door; been in every room,

a dim light shines down a new hall,  

or on an undiscovered door.

Sometimes, if under the door is very black,

I’m frozen in fear, afraid to open it.

I retreat to the familiar, but am haunted.

I don’t live alone in this house with many doors  

Sometimes it feels like I do, and I forget to 

to ask someone to walk with me down 
these dark halls, & walk through each new door.

It is my house; behind every door, a secret; 

every darkness faced; every ray of light realized,

Behind each new door is freedom.