Dark islands, seas, monsters
night unloads on unwary city.
The video doorbell pressed again; third time, longer than necessary.
Sound spills inside—purrs of a cat trapped in a
room of vintage clocks, mirrors, mounted heads
with glass eyes, deathly pale, under the light to
unsettle first-time visitors.
The Fall of the House of the Usher, prominent on
marble mantle, a dagger alongside, high-backed
furniture covered with black drapes—tastes can be
different for some—picture of a dishevelled man, in
black and of piercing eyes, placed on a side table, with
wilted lilies in a jar.
Fingers hit the memorised digits, hoping for a prompt hi!
in an
old raspy-wheezing voice!
The call dies down like sputtering orange embers
of bonfire, in a lakeside cottage, on a foggy night.
The flowers, loved and cared, whisper to the lonesome
visitor, more of trespasser, stock-still in the dark porch.
Eyes look up, lightning strikes at that precise moment,
eerie!
A serpentine thing slithers away, melts into the gloom
of the dormer window, left slightly ajar, on purpose;
A shadow that moved?
Billowing curtains that parted?
.
Sunil Sharma
Picture Kirill Zagrebnev
Academic |Writer | Critic | Editor | Freelance Journalist | Reviewer | Literary Interviewer
Editor: Setu: http://www.setumag.com/p/setu-home.html
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.