but no answer came.
I stood for seven years upon the portal
then, summoning my courage,
pushed open the unlocked door and entered in.
Mildewed tapestries hung upon the crumbling walls
and pale white worms crawled upon
the rotting carpets that covered the marble floor.
A thick veil of cobwebs hung from a cracked
and tilting chandelier and rats the size of
small terriers stared at me with blood-red eyes
from the excrement smeared ruin of a banqueting table.
I lit a candle and a thousand
demented shadows leapt about me,
brushing my cheek and throat with thin grey fingers.
A devil in a golden wig looked at me
from a cracked and broken mirror.
Covering my face with a silken handkerchief,
I thrashed the dust from a sagging
and mouldering settee
and composed myself to wait...




