Calling the Ghost

Doug Shaver-Cemetery in Malvern

  

How long must I sit on your grave
to elicit a visitation? Must I fast?
Must I meditate on the vastness
of the universe of death? Must
I count my own? Must I arrive
at midnight to pull your ashes
back to some semblance of you? 

If I wake, if I sleep, will you come
to me, shambling, silent, silhouetted
against the summer moon? Will you
speak? I closed your eyes with my own
hand. I sat at your side and waited. 

Now I sit on your grave, and wait.
I wrap myself against the night,
I sit on the cold ground, where you
are not. And wait.

  

readwritepoem    read write prompt #85: spooky

Totally Optional Prompts    Totally Optional Prompt: Midnight

14 responses to “Calling the Ghost”

  1. LOL! Brilliant! You took about the same turn I did!! 🙂 Great writing, and a wonderful read. Very flowing.

  2. I really enjoyed this. I like the way you cultivate the insistence of the initial questions.

  3. I enjoyed this very much, particularly the second stanza. A simple longing.

  4. I like the longing here..
    Marvellous!
    don’t forget to get my cigars

  5. Touching and moving and something I can identify with.

  6. Waiting and questioning. I love the notion of the speaker coming at midnight to rebuild the deceased from his ashes. There’s a desperation in grief that you describe well with that line.

  7. “I sit on the cold ground, where you
    are not. And wait.”
    Great closing lines!

  8. Ah, if only we had the answers. Grief takes a long time to turn to ash. Wonderful piece!

  9. This is perfection, Sharon. Love the way it flows and, for me, speaks to the yearning of some sign from the departed love one.

  10. Well. This one seems to work. The photo did pull a bit.

  11. It’s a long wait and the questions never go away.

  12. True, that.

  13. Enjoyable read.

  14. I love the image of pulling together the ashes into a semblance of the “you”. Gorgeous work!

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