Spooky Encounter
Standing in my kitchen, wearily washing breakfast's congealed dishes
Dreaming desperately of dredging up a dinner delightful and delicious
Late winter's wan rays of sunlight weaving their way through living room blinds
Weakly warming the chill hovel I'd rented since being orphaned in 1989...
Startlingly, a creak, then a tear-stained moan from somewhere behind me
A window opened, blinds parted, a breeze started: delusion--or eerie tragedy?
Whirling around, stifling a cry, I watched in wonder, wanting only to know
What this weeping and wailing thing was, whooshing its way to and fro
And wherefore invisible, as the wind whirred ever faster and faster
Would it cut me down, or would I manage to outlast her?
When of a sudden, I saw it, an apparition, sure and clear
What on earth was my father's ghost, his wavering image, doing here?
A spectral mouth, jabbering jaws, skeletal face bearing the telltale scars
Of my departed father's journey through a universe bereft of planets,
suns or stars
He spoke, this spook; he called my name: "Help me, please, my son.
Ask Him for His pardon; to undo the wrongs I've done."
I shrank from the image, my father's ghost, in pure terror
Surely it had returned to Earth by means of delusional error
I shrieked and hid my face, praying for the wretched thing to leave my place
Whereupon, abruptly, the image faded, whisked back in time
by the Devil's Grace...
The mind's imagination ranges
Far beyond mere celestial zones
Chilling mere human essences
to the marrow of their bones
September 20, 2018
Sponsor: Tania Kitchin
Scary or Spooky Poem Contest
Copyright © Gershon Wolf | Year Posted 2018
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