A City in Ruins at Night

by Jolie Lisenby

In a distant forgotten land,
the air is thick with silence.
Dark, angry clouds
roll across the sky,
a thief in the night
robs the city of present and past
until it no longer breathes.
Fallen temples lie
motionless in dreamless slumber.
Only skeletons remain –
statues that once stood grand, stand back –
and fade into shadows,
gripping the ruins of their hearts
with heads bent down in defeat.
Their eyes, black with tears,
look to the heavens for the angel
that watched over them.
She sits beneath the clouds,
Perched upon ruins
with singed wings that will not mend.