The Candle Burns

The candle flickers
Silky cobwebs hang, like silver tears from rafters thick with dust
Ageless faces peer from cracked canvasses
Darkness cloaks
A veil of silence falls over the face that time forgot
Dusty words, bound and gagged, scream silently to be read
as desperation seeps through the air, stifling, choking breath from aching lungs
But the candle burns
irredescent dreams cascade in stuttering shadows on the walls
watched by elusive arachnids,
endlessly going about their work of capturing screams in silken threads
Faded window tease with glimpses of light against threadbare curtains
Time died here
Hope vanished into the abyss
while desperation stayed, clinging to memories
adhering itself to everything, like the cobwebs and dust that settle
while the candle burns