Ebenezer! Ebenezer! She wailed;

Her strident voice glass shattered on the stairs,

Reverberating off cold claws worn rails

To grate upon my cauliflower ears;

There through torn velvet stabbed a blade of light

Now curdling dust to form a devil’s rain,

Swirling in a time warped tortured plight

As if escape lay down some filthy drain.

So did my thoughts there mingle in that hovel—

The twisted morass of some ghoulish hearse

That rendered heart and mind a hopeless muddle,

With white-knuckled hope alone, endured the course.

Chanced glint of brass upon the handled door

Evinced salvation of all souls afore.