The Hallow Halls Poem by B. V. Dahlen

The manor stands
Welcoming, festive,
Garland draped, be-ribboned
With Holiday touches.
Behind every door
Bright candlesticks
Crimson candles
Greens and berries
Brass and glitter
Lights twinkle
On nutcracker and babe.
These silent rooms
Cold forbidding
Lights reflecting
On emptiness and shadows
Of what was never here.
This setting prepared
And lavishly laid
With love and longing...
A most welcome guest
Never arrives,
And so each year
The feast is prepared
The manor adorned
For ghostly desires
Never fulfilled,
Who gather as phantoms
Around this bright tree
And blend silent voices
At chairs sitting empty
With no steaming banquet
Upon the long table
To fill laughing lips
To warm eager hearts.
I watch as the shadows
Taunt me
With unrealized dreams
And soul shriveling
Emptiness.