The Night Love Invaded 

I hear those footfalls
on the floor marked only by footprints
of demons and the exiled muse and silence.

And your voice calling a name 
I know is mine etched on the walls
that themes mama's 
cradle songs gone silent
and the owls on the oak sings me
every nightfall till I grew 
too bored counting stars.
My heart dances to your voice
like an adder to a snake charmer's pipe.

You walk fearlessly 
tracing the broken pieces of my china heart
with the lens only love sees through..
A room locked by a million
waxen bolts
you only beamed to melt off.
With one more step before you 
I break the suspense with a cry.

If ever you meet me in
this heart you venture
the beast I'm hiding like a caged songbird
that sings pain into gold.
Will you stay?

Would you walk through this 
vale of sabre-toothed silhouettes
for my heart like a Knight Templar would
when in sight glitters the Holy Grail?

If ever you meet the fool I am 
would you hiss away regretfully 
on wasted time on a fruitless quest?
Would you curse me dead like the barren fig
When you stand hungry?

I am a butler of a headless king.
This Don Quixote living in the castle
in his head
stabbing shadows for blood that promises 
an hour with the old familiar faces.

This soul obsessed
with reflections on the hideous face
of gloom.

I awake with limbs
too weak to tango with vices.
Too brave to hold the flaming torch
that leads to your heart ajar for the unworthy me.

- Martins Igbru