By Candlelight Poem by Neil Graham Marsden

Step inside this place of loving
surely turn the timeworn lock,
listen out for signs of living
far beyond the chiming clock.

Scan the walls for well-known faces,
check the photographs in frames,
where upon the mantel graces
remnants of familiar names.

Tease aside the night-locked curtains,
then the long dead flower falls.
Let the day enter uncertain,
breathe the sun across dark walls.

Raise your head to breathe in deeply,
Taste the scent of labored time.
Open writing books discretely,
make this empty heart sublime.

Sit a while and leaf through pages
written many tears ago.
Candles drowning through the ages
begging for the night to go.

Read how gentle words paint sorrow,
tender prose from dying heart,
hopeless waiting for tomorrow
heart to heart but lives apart.