The House of Haze

The first night in the house I bought,
I dreamt a singular smell,
Throttling, like of decaying soil,
It sunk in the dawn’s well.
 
The next night in a deep sleep,
My breaths started dying away,
Like I was being buried alive,
By malevolent hands at play.
 
My senses fought to revive,
And I stood near my head,
In a trance, I walked witnessing,
The story of a past massacre ahead.
 
My eyes widened, benumbed,
Each night they stayed awake,
As my ears strained to listen,
Bygone voices of mounting aches.
 
Next day, to repair a window frame,
I went to the village furniture shop,
Located near a desolate graveyard,
Screaming stories around a hilltop.
 
On reaching the dwelling of the dead,
That familiar smell did arouse,
My night dream or hebetudes,
I knew the secret of my house.
 
That night in light, I dared,
To see the smoky world underneath,
Amid the cries maddening my mind,
I bowed to unknown faces greet.
 
Faces appeared through the marble floor,
Burnt lineaments, tormented yet kind,
My heart skipped beats for a while,
To my cold world, they seemed all blind.
 
The voices, I could not clearly fathom,
But they wept their kismet, set ablaze,
Though they were not ghosts of prey,
I decided to vacate the house of haze.
 
The house that looked calm at day
Was built upon that bone yard,
Where souls sought salvation at night,
As their bodies laid there, charred.

Richa Sharma is an Indian national residing near New Delhi, India. She loves reading and writing poetry in her leisure time. As for her livelihood, she is qualified as an Assistant Professor in the field of labor relations. Her first short story ‘Helping Hand’ was published by Reader’s Digest India in 2016 as a part of their cover story ‘Better Together’. She is in the process of submitting her poetry to different literary magazines. Her poem ‘The shadow dance’ is forthcoming in issue 6 of ‘The Pangolin Review’. She wishes to pursue her interest in writing and believes that poetry is the best refuge a human heart can seek and the best way to influence our society towards peace and prosperity through thoughtful compositions.