©2021 Michael Raven

steel pierce the silence
hooks and drawn
door after door closed
to the hall wandering
i know you are out there
not painted in faces
and masked distractions

why these games with
fingers laced and hidden?

recognition in shadows
like forks stabbing north
under tablecloth tents
wraiths fading summer
here comes the winter
without that promised fire

skeleton key me twist
children's songs haunt from
the greying mists
i thought i saw you
lips like blood wine painted
i thought i heard you
in the battlefield gift