A forlorn lantern was enlightening the chasms of midnight,
Swaying in desolate grace,
Its flickering light, a spectral frolic,
Guided the lost in a trance.
Shadows stretched like ghostly tendrils,
Across forsaken and haunted lands,
Sighs of a forgotten past echoed through the night,
Steadfast in the grip of eternal fright.
The lantern’s glow was pale and wan,
Its glimmers Illuminated a path long gone,
Through mist and gloom, it led astray,
Guiding dreams that would have lost their way.
Its glass, shattered by time’s cruel jest,
Reflected the sorrow of the restless anguish,
In every flame, a story was hiding,
Of hearts that once were amiable, now cold.
In the silence, secrets hid,
Beneath the lantern’s mournful sway,
A flare for the cursed and lost,
In the shadows of the past, they fade away.
Beneath the crescent moon’s senseless stare,
The forlorn lantern swung in the damp air,
A solitary and magical lodestar,
In the darkness, it did confide.
Flickers and whispers of bygone dreams,
Plagued the edges of moonlit streams,
Where remnants of the long-departed lingered,
In the glooms of the bygone days, they softly perished.
An eternal vigil, a silent invocation,
For those who wandered, lost and bare,
The forlorn lantern’s light was the only compass,
In the darkened abyss where shadows sough.
On every eerie, timeless night,
The forlorn lantern shone its glare,
A spectral glow in profound shadiness,
Guiding the lost who never rested.
Tormenting echoes of a mournful elegy,
The lantern’s light lasted all night long,
Its rays, though faint, still mighty,
To ward off the nighttime hour by hour.
A vestige of sorrow’s plight,
This forlorn lantern was an ethereal gaze,
Its flame, a lamp for the bewildered,
Burning through the night despite the strain.
Each night, as clouds drew near,
The lantern’s light cast out the fear,
A solitary star in the infinite dusk,
Its shine, a faint yet steadfast spark.
No one knew from whence it came,
This forlorn lantern, with its everlasting flame,
But in its glow, the lost wayfarers found peace,
A moment’s solace, a brief release.
In the end, the darkness gave way,
To dawn’s first light, the break of day,
And the forlorn lantern, in twilight’s gust,
Owned stories of life, love, and death.
Esther Elizabeth Racah
