Empty Room Poem by Stuart Knapp

I need this room empty
Nail shut the windows
Lock down the door, descend
The stairs in search of a candle

Breaking ties, leaving lies
No ironed sheets survived
A stain on my shirt
Soiled too deep to wash

Clean from the years
In the devil’s vest I spent
Alone I sit again
No wine, no guests

My hands have so freely given
Long forgotten that I was the person
When I was the soul
That ran dry and burned

Only ghosts in my mind move in what remains

The fields where I once stood
Held me in their silence
The beauty from which darkness took hold
Laughing in my fields gone violent

All familiar things are gone
Drawers filled with dust
Holes in my clothes
Bones full of rust

An old empty chair
Whose time has long passed
Across a foreign table
With memories of how she laughed

To see the candle light
Again dance on her face
If only in a dream
And small prayers for grace