Night comes to an Indian ghost town..

footsteps follow well-trodden paths through an inkwell of darkness

upward toward a hidden citadel

where apparitions of inhabitants welcome the returning..

Evening swans are still singing in the ruins down below

to defy the arrogant rooster whose sure his day will come;

and who fills his barn with domestic fare and

sleeps in a snare of silence, unknowing that his days are fully done.