Greeting the Ghosts:
(First posted on my WordPress blog on Feb. 10, 2013)
©Vijaya Sundaram
Every morning, when I wake up, and every night when I go to sleep, I greet my ghosts.
They cluster around me, aching with loneliness. “Tell us about it all,” they sigh and await the news of a world they crave.
They never got used to being dead, you see.
I take pity on them sometimes. They are so very sad
Still, I ask myself, Is this all there is to it? Shouldn’t they be floating higher and higher, and eventually get sucked into the vortex of the sun?
I don’t tell them what I think. Their feelings might get hurt. One of them, a tender-hearted spirit stays long by my bedside, asking me all about my sleep. I lead it into my dream world, and it takes in a deep breath. The other ghosts, jealous and fretful, pull it back into their world. The tender-hearted spirit weeps. The windows rattle outside.
I turn over. I need to sleep. Morning awaits me, fresh-eyed and abrupt, like a child waiting to roust one from one’s rest.
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