The Upstairs Window I saw my soul standing in the upstairs window I saw her but she didn't see me A thick silence began slowly filling my mind with Innumerable Subtle and hostile whispers that radiated from the dark window where she stood A thousand eyes murmuring sullen chants Rhythmic voices carried by the cold winds Smothered her As copper clouds that gloom the evening sky Her shadow was drowned out by the voices The floorboards creaked under the weight of her despair Unable to move Unable to scream I could only watch as she deeply inhaled her tears and died in her sleep Elegant entities began dancing around her lifeless body--- My body Diffused vague specters as opaque as the Burning sun behind a thickening layer of angry gray clouds Scavengers consuming her remains It's now many years later And the forbidding echoes of her desires still resonate deeply in my mind Prodding at my sanity Compelling me to follow her But how can this be? My soul turned to ash and returned to the dust long ago But still, I collapse under the weight of her growing insistence And I find myself standing here looking out that same window Disturbed that I too may suffer her fate My fears quickly become reality I taste the familiar wisps of stifling rhythmic voices return Descending, descending upon me Eerie wavering sounds pluck at my nerves I scream out my rage and claw furiously at the burrs with mind fingers I fall down, gripped in despair's embrace My eyes turning as dark as the burnt wood of a funeral pyre Soundless and methodical My heart suffocates My dead soul returns and cradles my head in her arms Her gentle hand stroking my cheek And sweet soprano purring a spell-song of longings fulfilled Chasing away my assorted fragments of terror Until Death completes its task Here…. In the upstairs window

Copyright 2000 - M.D. Burke