Lost Kings and Skeletal Crowns

In halls where time doth cease to tread

Where stone and silence keep the dead

A throne room sits in shadow’s keep

Where ancient kings eternal sleep

Their crowns of rust, their robes of dust

Long turned to ash, long broke in trust

They sit on thrones of crumbled might

Enshrouded deep in endless night

The air hangs thick with death’s cold breath

A realm untouched by life or death

No whisper stirs, no flicker’s glow

Just dark that swallows all below

The chandeliers, long dimmed and cracked

Hang overhead in ruin stacked

Their crystal tears no longer gleam

But haunt the air like broken dreams

Their sockets bare, devoid of sight

The kings stare on in endless blight

Their fingers clawed, their faces drawn

Twisted masks of dusk and dawn

Their crowns, once gold, now blackened stone

Echo faint of dying moan

Of empires lost, of cities razed

Of glories gone, of thrones decayed

The walls are etched with nameless scars

Of battles fought beneath the stars

Of oaths once sworn, of blood once spilt

Of kingdoms raised and kingdoms built

Yet now they sit in hollow doom

These monarchs of a buried tomb

Their reigns forgot, their power fled

A council dark of ancient dread

The torches long have burned to soot

No flame remains to light their foot

Yet still they linger, still they stare

A host of ghosts in heavy air

The shadows shift with every glance

As if the dead still dare to dance

To rhythms lost in time’s decay

To songs that night alone can play

In silence thick and absence deep

The kings remain in death’s dark keep

Their empty eyes, like wells of black

Seem to follow, to draw thee back

The throne room cold, a timeless crypt

Where regal bones and curses slipped

They wait, they watch, in shrouded grace

Long dead, yet bound to that cursed place

Beware, ye living, who dare intrude

Upon this realm of solitude

For every step that echoes near

Is swallowed whole by ancient fear

The kings who sit in endless night

Are not but dust in death’s cold bite

Yet something stirs in darkness deep

Where dead kings sit and secrets keep