Echoes in the Remains
by Isabella Lobo
Sleep peacefully, little one.
Lay and look into the awaiting night.
See in cascading blackness the grinning, wide-eyed stares
hoping in the darkness you’ll find them there.
Waiting for your breath to catch,
your throat to ache with little fears.
Lay and see the faces come closer,
watch them fill the windows, the picture frames, the walls.
Grinning, godless faces in the rooms,
coming, marching through the halls.
Listen for the door hinge creek,
the grasp upon the handle.
Hear in the hollow heartbeat of nearing footfalls,
the hammer,
the coffin’s nail.
Let the ache grow
Until your cry echoes soundlessly within the eaves.
Within the days, the nights, the minutes and the hours.
Tiptoe among the toys, scattered, broken among the glass.
Step carefully among the scenes,
torn and shattered,
Foot by foot through the echoes in the remains
rotting,
unheard in the walls.
Lay and look into the awaiting night.
See in cascading blackness the grinning, wide-eyed stares
hoping in the darkness you’ll find them there.
Waiting for your breath to catch,
your throat to ache with little fears.
Lay and see the faces come closer,
watch them fill the windows, the picture frames, the walls.
Grinning, godless faces in the rooms,
coming, marching through the halls.
Listen for the door hinge creek,
the grasp upon the handle.
Hear in the hollow heartbeat of nearing footfalls,
the hammer,
the coffin’s nail.
Let the ache grow
Until your cry echoes soundlessly within the eaves.
Within the days, the nights, the minutes and the hours.
Tiptoe among the toys, scattered, broken among the glass.
Step carefully among the scenes,
torn and shattered,
Foot by foot through the echoes in the remains
rotting,
unheard in the walls.
Isabella Lobo is a teenage artist and writer currently living in South Florida. Her artwork and writing has received awards at the national level through Scholastic Art and Writing and has been published in COUNTERCLOCK Lit, The Harbor Review, and The Firefly Review, among others. She currently serves as a prose editor and staff writer for The Borderline, a youth led magazine.