Temptation

I remember when the road ran

Past your house,

And I would

Peak out the backseat window

Of the family car

Just to see

You staring back at me,

Just to feel that

Hollow quiver

Of you staring back at me.

 

They said—

All the children

Of the neighborhood said—

You were a ghost

You were some phantom

You were an alien perhaps

Staring out the window like that.

 

And all the parents said

You were some figment

From some fantasy book

That I had read.

You were a creation

Of my imagination:

A fairy lie.

They said smile now,

Because daydreams

Shortly die.

 

But I saw you

Staring back at me,

And you were real

As you always will be.

 

And you are not a ghost,

Because you wore my face,

And the hollow quiver

In your eyes was too

Close a match to mine for you to be

Just another Boo Radley of the mind.

 

And looking back,

I can see now what you are,

Hiding behind the window so,

Hiding and watching so I would know:

The dark side of me—

All that I refused to be.

 

Reviews

[Dressed in Poetry]

Eerie. I like this, especially the To Kill a Mockingbird reference.