*

A shower of small black stones

The daily toll

To keep the ghouls at bay

 

That nestled

Deathly still

Behind those rotting boards

 

Watching

As you passed

From dark and silent eyes

 

Sending you flying

On a windy day

With a wayward howl from that gaping maw

 

Even the

Hulking black birds

Quietened as they clawed its broken thatch

 

Forty years on

A once-cheery usurper stands in its place

Paying doleful tribute to its forbear’s fate

*

Biography

Anne Casey is a writer, poet and lyricist with over 25 years’ experience in print and electronic publishing, creative writing, media communications and business development. Her poems have been published online and in print. Her first poetry collection will be published by Salmon Poetry in 2017.