The Withdrawing Room

Huddled together in this abstemious grey chamber no windows or means of escape walls closing in trapped where the un-sanctified transactions are made Daunting without exit the silent screams go unheard ashen skin with darting eyes never looking up forever too frightened of seeing the truth reflected back In the unholy grail in visions of comrades within this un-sacred act of ransom the collective voice of the masked chorus urging them on wards then the integrated tragedy of hidden fears and secrets A living sacrifice under this bargain where no one wins or gains without boundaries of mortal limits there exists in this gunmetal airless demise unfettered woefulness and vainglory vie for victory The innocent victim's now the pawn's forgotten as pride twists obscurities severing the umbilical cord drowning breaths of existence the sterile smell of unfinished lives permeating into the coal and ice Tiny little footprints always remain's inside the womb's silenced facts the living water of life breaks no longer flows through the natural cord leaving a chorus of continuous phantom's chanting in mendacious unity Opening the door of perdition where the tactical glare of a butchers knife held under a ghostly specter of a child that might have been treasured a face imagined but never seen and names never uttered A tortured remembrance of a pardon held precious beauty once soon the vapour of shame burns off in an emptiness that still remains glazes over a ruby rare passion Where fear & the constant loathing cannot fathom the uncertainties this future brings forth in the immenseness of what might have been not touching the soul properly The unborn yet to speak? silenced unadorned gone forever jewel's always held within prayers of the faithful loving grace a co written piece by Donna Loughman and Liam McDaid