010121b

 

one step

then another

into the whispering wood 

shadows move, you think

behind the farthest trees

they are phantoms, perhaps

that live only in your eyes

111620

 

somebody yelled

out the 2nd-story window

abandoned for years

that house

and empty still

110520b

 

your warm flesh trembles

I stroke your cheek

crumbs of black earth falling

from my cold hands

 

082920b

 

Always 

 

in 

one

of the 

second floor's 

empty bedrooms; no

dusty footprints, no hot breath on 

his neck, yet she, always there, pressing on his chilled flesh

030220b

The ghosts got so thick in the old part of town they were a menace to navigation. Getting anywhere inside the walls of the old city was like driving through a dense fog. This turned out to be one of the strongest drivers of research into immortality. It also ended the revitalization of downtowns everywhere.

122619d

all around us
the dead thicken the air
blessed dehumidifier

122419

baking ghosts into buns
looking for the one
truly at peace
glass-case messiah
causing the dead
to rise again

112519c

Catch

They’re out fishing after midnight, Halloween night. Neither one catching a blamed thing.

Why they call this Virgin Lake, Earl?

Ever’body knows that. It’s the girl.

What girl?

The one that drowned. In her car. You remember.

Well, seem like maybe I do. A party, right?

Yep. Halloween night. That’s why we come here tonight. They say she shows herself. Anniversary of her death, an' all.

I don’t wanna see no ghost. I wanna catch fish!

Come to think of it, guess that’s why they ain’t bitin’. Skeered.

Shit, Earl, we gotta go!

You ain’t skeered of no ghost like some dumb fish, are ya, Bobby?

Heck, no. Course I ain't. But the fish ain’t bitin’ nohow.

Huh. You remind me of her.

You knew her?

Took her to that party. She drove, cos my truck needed some work. Pretty little thing.

What’s that noise, Earl?

Frog. Yeah, pretty as she wanna be. But she did me dirt that night. She-- what?

That ain’t no frog.

Well, then it was a fish jumping. Anyway, I just wanted to take her out back. You know. What did she think we were there for, anyway? It sure as hell wasn't cookies and conversation. But she wouldn't give me even a kiss. When I saw how it was, I called her a cold bitch. If she had slapped me I was going to give it back in spades. But she stomped back out the front door. Before I knew it she had taken off with my damn ride.

There it is again. And that ain't no fish, no frog neither.

I'll tell you what I don't think it is. A ghost. You want to hear the rest of story, or not?

So then what?

Plenty of girls there. I found one would do what I wanted. She gave me a ride home afterwards. Next morning we found out what happened. The car in the lake. Girl's body wasn't inside. They dove for her, but they never found anything. I don't know why she did it. Wasn't drunk. Hadn't had a drop to drink. I’d tried to give her some. Thought it would loosen her up.

Damn waste of a fine body. Waste of a fine car, too. '57 Chevy, two-tone, tiptop condition. Well, I guess she ain't gonna show. Let's — holy shit, Bobby! There she is, rising up right behind you! Reaching for you!

Ha ha. The way you screamed and jumped. I had you going. Bet you crapped your pants. You know you did. Get up now and start rowing. Loser rows. Come on. Bobby? Bobby?

110419d

Spectral Fish

Caught bare-handed

at midnight,

full moon so bright

they roast in its light;

sweet taste of rivers

that perished long ago,

when this land was green,

when birdsong echoed from the frees;

such fish ran those streams!

This one swallowed a golden ring,

its spirit shivers down my spine.

Invisible,

I cast my line

reel in fish after fish.

At sunrise I wake

on a grassy bank,

around me birds

are calling:

they are singing,

what’s this here?

110119d

cute little ghost
candy falls right thru her bag
at every house

102319

after the flash

the shadow of a boy

on the wall

102219b

It turns out that everyone becomes a ghost. At this point, there are so many of us in that category, that the surface of the land has actually been elevated several centimeters. Unfortunately, this is not enough to counteract the effects of melting of the ice caps. Then again, that will produce even more ghosts!

090819

If She Knew She Was a Ghost

She’d have walked through more walls,

Spent more time at rock concerts

so loud she fluttered in their breeze,

Hesitated less, danced more,

Cared less about her looks,

Butted in where she wasn’t wanted,

Haunted Big Tony within an inch.

But she’d always have told him no,

Especially that last, terrible time;

When she wasn’t yet a ghost.

082119b

only the moon brings
transparent
beauty to your face

among the cold graves
none so dear
as yours is to me

tear yourself away
from dances
without care or end

hold me in your arms
in moonlight
one more time tonight

080619b

under the gibbous
moon, moaning
the unquiet dead

061519b

email
from your late father
wish you were here

041419

Ghosts,
riders or otherwise,
are not in the sky;
seek,
if you would find them,
inside your head;
they're everywhere

041019b

Is There Life


skeletons of ancient fish
dead these billion years, stir
new feet tread on unmarked graves
interlopers from the third planet
the ghosts of Mars
swim up

a world of ghosts
scream "go home"
with silent voices

040319

time travelers
pass through walls like ghosts
we stare back

033019d

The Ghost Eater

The Professor's machine did exactly as promised,

hoovering up ghosts quicker than you could say Jack Rob

but he never did explain what happened to them

before he vanished, machine & all,

in full view of 1,026 citizens of Wichita, Kansas.

Ideas about the captured spectres abounded:

converted to energy and used to heat the Prof.'s home,

squeezed into a superdense ball of trans-uranics,

beamed into outer space,

sent back to the Cambrian,

when Earth was young,

and the landscape dry as dust.

That one was right.

Not much to do in a desert so barren

the sand gets lonely,

Joe, and Bill, Eileen, baby “X”, and all, they

floated around making conversation:

morning Zebu, good to see you Phyl,

day after tiresome day as a disembodied spirit,

unable to interact with matter

no one to frighten except Petra,

and she was only pretending,

being a wight herself.

“Just let me die!” the only joke,

& after 14,000 years it wasn't funny any more.

So they schemed to haunt the Professor,

haunt him somethin' fierce

from the very moment of his birth.

But you know what?

The ghosts dissipated one by one,

not a one even made it

to the conquest of land,

they changed, somehow, learned to let go,

popped like soap bubbles, unobserved.