there's only artificial light here

the house is reticent.
chants and seances still hang
mute in the air
while angels enrobe us
to prevent evil from entering
like the air that enters our lungs.

candles strewn
plastic dolls broken
stained walls
white wens entangle the clean
and "do not enter"
scrawled on each surface.

my curious eyes
tiptoe over the murky walls
pleading to make sense of it all.
pleading for clarity
of the spiders that crawl and breed in my stomach.

the silence is deafening.
i can hear the slugs feasting on her skin.
they reverberate off the prison's walls
causing mayhem.

arms protrude from
every creased corner,
petting my senses,
inviting me to stay.

she tells me to leave
in a voice rung with panicked chords.
but i do not hear her.

through a white window
streams white praises
much more white than the pale sky holds.
it engulfs the darkness and frightens the dead arms back into their private tomb.

we run from the house
only two frightened school-girls
afeared of monsters in the closet.
but the monster's cancerous eye glares through a crack
watching us
until we are where birds sing again.