No One Ghost

No One Ghost
©December 23rd. 2019
By Vijaya Sundaram

So strange it is to live
Surrounded by people who Are,
When all I see are those
Who once were, those who will be,
Those who might have been,
And those who could become.We breathe in ghosts
As we move through air,
And they slip, silken, though
Skin, ears, eyes, mouths.

There’s no one ghost here, but
Multitudes in the air we breathe,
The water we drink so gratefully,
The food that we bite into,
The air molecules that vibrate in music
Next to our ears, and enter our brains.

Alive, though dead, they
Fill us with their lost selves,
And sing of a time we pine for,
Which we dream about with a vast yearning,
As we gasp, and flounder,
And struggle into wakefulness,
Drowning in dry land,
Feet getting sucked under.

I feel them on my skin,
Their blind desire to live and feel
Filling me with a bone-deep love
For this life, even as I long,
So fervently, to leave it.

And will I meet them when I do?

Or will we be blind to each other
As we turn to the living
And long for their breath,
Their blinded, sunlit eyes?

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