Something I wrote for a competition on my writers forum. I look upon the ruins of time Once great walls of marble now lie in desolation Shattered stain glass of faces once beloved This temple of life now haunted and bare And I search these piles of burning disdain for some sort of absolution But all I find is contempt With heavy eyes and weary soul I bear my burden My skin sags and the color in my eyes grows dim The statues of what could have been follow me Watch with melancholy eyes as I wander my pantheon aimless Turning stone over and over, finding only imprints of the past I chase shadows for days Nothing in front, everything behind I call only to hear my own words echo back Sometimes my calloused feet find soft grass only to have it wither The smell of fresh air drowned out by the centuries Sometimes I find space uncharted only to fall back I always fall back into my defiled sanctuary My monastery of abysmal of reclusion