One starless night
I searched my house of memory;
And found a heavily dusty room there,
It's door half-opened,
Tempted me, beckoned me forth

In the room were humans,
All but a few
were strange to me

Their faces differed,
Their shapes, their laughs-
The fire of life
In their eyes
All seemed pure
Like leaves burning
from a white fire tree

I only blinked; I merely blinked;
And to my everlasting dismay,
The beautiful creatures were replaced;

An unkind breeze blew a stench
from new familiar forms
that filled the dusty room
In an overcrowded way

It was with ungraceful desperation
that these creatures
Hurried in a circle

Desperate to get somewhere fast;
Some easily disappeared through the walls
(Oh the relief to watch them escape!)
Others hit their heads on the wall
Bounced off it,
And began to bleed profusely

Powerless to leave
As if a force magnetted me
To the iron floor,
I stood, barely *****
Rooted there
By Fate's unkind hand
To watch this torment,
Unafraid and yet fearful
That the doorknob I held,
Would refuse to open
When eventually I find the guts
To turn it