They played cards 

and they talked 

whilst the little 

chess pieces 

danced

The eldest lit 

a cigarette 

whilst the youngest 

exhaled 

Its smoke

Empty whisky bottles 

shuffled nervously 

and someone 

in the corner 

sang a song 

about the sea 

and a canon ball

A man stared blindly

into the future

droning incessantly 

into the

Flea bitten ear

Of a cat 

whose miaow 

forced 

the shadows 

to draw 

hasty sketches 

of tunnels 

on the walls

The house 

Shivered 

Its timbers

As the spider ladies 

mumbled the fate 

Of folk  

from a darkened place 

Which once had been 

The centre  

Of everything 

 

There was no escape 

from 

the House of Creation

Some thrived and sparked 

Whilst others drowned 

their sorrows 

with the empty promise 

of broken 

spirits

Together 

they painted 

the story 

Of

Life