Tapestries of gossamer
festoon rough-hewn rafters.
Knotty old floorboards
groan under a century’s burden of
memories, dust-coated secrets,
buried shadows in decaying chests,
hearts stilled and gone frigid.
A shaft of skittish sunbeams
pierces a grimy window,
spotlighting crazed sepias
of austere gentlemen
in over-starched high collars
and ladies bedecked
in lacy décolletage
and frilly hats, looking
quite prim and proper.
In a dank, dusty corner
where the sun never visits
a doll lies long-abandoned,
naked, crumpled, eyes
rolled back in a face
of fractured china.
Krikor Der Hohannesian lives in Medford, MA. His poems have appeared in over 150 literary journals including The Evansville Review, The South Carolina Review, Atlanta Review, Louisiana Literature, Connecticut Review and Natural Bridge. He is a three-time Pushcart Prize nominee and the author of two chapbooks,“Ghosts and Whispers” (Finishing Line Press, 2010) and “Refuge in the Shadows” (Cervena Barva Press, 2013). “Ghosts and Whispers” was a finalist for the Mass Book awards poetry category in 2011.
