Countdown: #1, Letter to a Ghost

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My last five posts of 2016 are reruns of the five most viewed poems on this site during the year. This one, by far the most popular, also made its first appearance here in June, and received a large bump in views due to a Halloween link on Discover. Many thanks to editor Cheri Lucas Rowlands for her support.

 

Letter to a Ghost

Had I not dreamed your death, I would have praised this day.
Your name rests in a wooden box on a desk

in a room far away and twice as old as we were then.
My penance in this phase: to continue.

I gather words close and refrain from admissions.
The clock on the wall seldom chimes,

like one whose vows circumvent convenience, or
a shade allowing the barest sliver of light

through the window. That tock preceding
a long silence. Snow blanketing the mounded earth.

Your scent never lingers past sleep, where you remain.
At last I no longer covet those sheets you’ve shared.

Your name rests in a box. I gather words and refrain.

ghost

28 thoughts on “Countdown: #1, Letter to a Ghost”

  1. Pingback: Countdown: #1, Letter to a Ghost | News From the Bronx

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