Standing on a ledge of light
with darkness lapping at the edge,
waiting to engulf me and the world,
as ravens of resentment
strain towards the night
from deep inside,
their wings unfurled
against flight long denied,
I shudder with the movement
of a door that opens on a sigh,
the cage imprisoning the heart
left vacant as bleak shades depart,
and bars that were invisible
relent, then melt away like stars,
while somewhere in the sanctum
a bell sweetly chimes the angelus,
calling the purified to vespers,
tolling at the edge of time...