Somewhere in a Dark Room

Somewhere in a dark room, alone and decorated in painted shadows
A flickering candle shimmers with stark angular silhouettes
Of the long stem of the dark rose of the night
Almost floating from its purple vase
On to the gloomy stone wall

Music is not heard, nor the warmth of voices
Only the lonely sound of water droplets,
Rhythmically falling and casting fading echoes
Somewhere in this dark extent of a room
That vanish with each percussive drop on the cold floor

Curiously he arises from the battered wooden chair
Weak at first, and taking hold of the candle for light in one hand
And then gently raising the vase with the night rose in the other
Now prepared to seek out the source of the falling water droplets
Yet each moment that he follows the sound from a certain direction
It shifts to another somber corner of the room to escape him
And then to another, and another until all corners are exhausted

Unexpectedly, a glistening crystal water droplet falls from above
As an icicle that dislodges from a wintry tree branch
Startling him, as it lands on top of the dark rose, and melts as a river
To then leisurely descend as a winding slow caress
Among the folds of the soft petals, still lingering and unhurried
Suddenly to fall from the ruby dark petals to the long stem
Narrowly escaping the gleaming and dangerous thorns
To come to rest on his hand
The candle flickers and goes out.

by Peter Forrest
www.houseofusher.net