Ghosts of Us

 

I’ve seen a ghost

an old spirit

roaming through the words

as quietly as she can

so as not to raise any hairs

on the back of anyone’s neck.

 

I tried taking a picture

but she removed it

from her wall

faster than falling

for the idea of someone

but we both know

she’s been there before,

once pacing those halls

with chains on her ankles.

 

Then one day the chiming stopped

and her ascent of self

at the expense of another

began and that was the last time

I saw her around,

assured I would never

cross her path again

 

Until recently

when I was the victim

of a haunt and run,

an unexpected but familiar

gust of warm air

reminding me of laundry

and the solitude of an island.

 

But the past is the past,

it outlasts us all

and sometimes we end up

repeating ourselves

but this time around

I hope she’s smiling first

because she deserves it the most

between the two ghosts of us.

Reviews

[Hedra Helix]

Until recently
when I was the victim
of a haunt and run,
an unexpected but familiar
gust of warm air
reminding me of laundry
and the solitude of an island.


this and that end paragraph is f*****g tactile almost. Soooo cool.

[Hedra Helix]

ohh look ive been here before, good for me!
yep still bad a*s, cool off beat subject but still relatable for your clarity/ poise and terse way with delivery. Sooo neat. living in the real and the ghostery.

[akarusty]

Good to be reading your stuff again. I like this metaphor of the Ghost, to me it represents an idea us writers might constantly write about, whether an emotion or a thought or theme. And how when we escape that idea it may eventually come back to us in spades and we are forced to write about it again, but hopefully in a different way (that is my interpretation of 'but this time around I hope she's smiling first'). I am intrigued by the similie of warm air reminds you of laundry (brilliant) and 'the solitude of an island', I am thinking now the island represents a figurative state of mind when you are writing, or how you place yourself when you are writing, away from everyone else to be left alone with your own thoughts.

Good stuff.

[Hedra Helix]

wow! grabs you by the neck. glorious mystery. lovely rhyme nonrhyme flowage. ;)

[Kiri J]

this is so beautiful.
if i wasn't so tired, i'm sure i could tell you much more eloquently how much i love this. i just do.

[Christel Grady]

They say to never have loved & lost....blah, blah, blah. I'm still trying to decide if that's a true sentiment. This piece struck me, like a slegdehammer, like when I run in to my ex on the lightrail train coming home from work. Damn, I need a drink..............