The electric light failing

The town takes on its antique darkness

and in the streets, stumbling over the uneven cobbles

one sees the rooms lit with another light,

a light nearer the ground, more personal.

And the candle, the single candle gives a new meaning to the rooms inside the bead curtains

an ancient, unremembered focus.

Faces: hands: and a vast penumbra

in the living shadow hang shining pans – irrelevant

In the shade, more shadows on the shadows, moving

But above all, faces – the expressions clear-cut, intensified:

And the moving hands.