Flickering (NAPOWRIMO 2015 #20)

In candle-bursted blindness,

I see but silhouettes of men,

their slithering shadows bouncing

against a beige canopy,

creeping extremities grasping

and clenching and scratching

as the seeping shades of

bleak starlessness unpunctuated

by the stark nudity of clear

visions and visionless poise

unheeded/unneeded

but dim, dim, dim

dim the cricket or the

hammer strike unseen