GOSSAMER CHAINS

Gossamer Chains

Perfume lingered

Like a wisp of memory

In an aged mind.

A whisper

Spoken from yellowed pages,

Beamed like sun

And fell into darkness.

It was…

A distant dream,

An unfed hunger,

And a knife that glittered with a thousand blades.

Caught in cobwebs,

Of silver spinning, gossamer chains

And a perjured heart.

Dust covered

And love denied,

The room stood still

And did not breathe.

Tinkling keys

Of piano, haunted

With fragmented song

Sweeping the air like the sea, the shore.

Windows dressed

In ancient lace

With no face smiling

Behind the glass.

It was….

Beautiful, like birth

And terrible, like death.

Angels

Did not walk there

Nor did they visit,

For it was unhallowed ground.

Only he

Would dare the door

And turn the key.

Only he,

Of shattered soul

And broken mind

Would enter that sad room.

Standing lost

In strands of dust

And shells of spiders.

The sun

Would hit his face

And shine him

Back to yesterday.

In the middle

Of the floor, he stops

And listens to the whispers.

Smells the fragrance

Settled there

That surrounds him

Like soft arms.

So quiet

So unearthly quiet……

And no sob can disturb it.

The silk dress lying

On the bed,

The shoes, the purse,

The strings of pearls.

Waiting,

Wanting to be worn

Longing to be touched.

But he cannot bear

The sight of them

And backs away

To close the door.

Leaning once more

Without strength

As the key turns in the lock.

I ask him

Why he locks the door

Why he still lives

In this house.

Why he doesn’t

Burn it down

And run away forever?

Don’t you know? he always says

In a voice as thin as paper

Don’t you know, beloved one

That I’ll never let you go?

And so he doesn’t

And so I stay

Within the walls, behind the door.

Red wallpaper roses,

Faded to pink

Cover my face, conceal every trace

Of the girl who once loved the man with the key.

The man,

Who took my life from me

The man who’s more dead

Than I’ll ever be.

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©by Voo

Sept 15, 2011

11:24 p.m.