Until They Stood At Last By A Crumbling Wall

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5

...until they stood at last
by a crumbling wall,
looking up and up
and still farther up
at the great tombyard top
of the old house.
For that's what it seemed.
The high mountain peak
of the mansion was littered
with what looked like
black bones or iron rods,
and enough chimneys
to choke out smoke signals
from three dozen fires
on sooty hearths
hidden far below in dim bowels
of this monster place.
With so many chimneys,
the roof seemed
a vast cemetery,

each chimney signifying
the burial place of some
old god of fire or
enchantress of steam, smoke,
and firefly spark.
Even as they watched,
a kind of bleak exhalation
of soot breathed up
out of some four dozen flues,
darkening the sky still more,
and putting out some few stars.
--Ray Bradbury
The Halloween Tree