Repetition

Four solid walls,
a hinge, a lid,
lock and key.
Secure yet eaten,
from the inside out.

That box,
kept but never owned,
never controlled,
inheritance,
passed along to be
------placed on some dusty shelf
------------in some draughty cellar,
touched only by the occasional drips of light.

New alchemy,
light to acid,
the keeper a prisoner,
------better,
------------bitter.