Passages

Through these musty passages, history creeps
Past a clock ticking the ages.
Bricks and mortar sit in deep foundations
Your buried secrets
Of raging battles, the Empire falling.

Misshapen stones,
Placed carefully when
Toiling men built your Kingdom.
With lookout posts, your eye for miles around.
A drawbridge, your very own red carpet.

As time lost your army,
Grandeur slowly slipped away.
As many foes crumbled too,
You stood alone in your grounds.
But you were preserved in plaster, put on display

An open diary

Tormenting the castle today,
Peering eyes peeling back the face of the past.
Interpreting the old, replacing for new.
Authenticity is shed for smooth carpet, fresh paint
Flakes of cement drift in the moat.

Your everlasting voice in a glass cabinet.

Surviving the passages of time.