Aftershocks of Midnight

An eerie chime enrages thought
behind his placid eyes.
Its echoes chase the peace he sought
in morbid compromise
like phantom forms of finer things
finessing gelid tears,
a viperine hiss of whisperings
the silence overhears.

He's heard them there, bereft the hues
they'd carried through the years,
a dingy photo rendez-vous'
with rotting souvenirs.
The soundless laughs from evening mists
as silhouettes emerge,
a telling sign that hell exists
where old regrets converge.

His questions circle num'raled voids
like ghosts in Time's machine,
those wisps of want that age destroyed
as mem'ries reconvene
and somewhere deep beneath the lies
he tries to sell his mind,
there sleeps a truth that verifies
the failures intertwined.

Reminders hide beyond the stroke
of Midnight's empty heart.
A lifetime slept, they reawoke
to once again depart
while deep within that ebon clock,
the ghosts of love and hate
imbibe the lonesome aftershock
and slowly dissipate.....