Michael Diehl, Fairy Falls
(Audio for Visitations begins at :53)
Visitations
Ghosts really piss me off.
So full of their fleshless selves,
swaying like inflated tubemen—
as if they really could frighten.
Nightmares haunt far better.
The dead appear and stare
as if somehow I could help—
fill their tenuous skins,
make them breathe again—
but I can’t and they blame me.
Before dawn my best friend visits
as the slim young man he once was.
He stands silent, tells me nothing,
not where he’s been or how he came,
but strains with urgent expectation.
Why are you here? I ask. What can I do?
His face crumbles and he assumes
his booze-bloated, perimortal form,
pleading, mouthing without sound.
What can I say? Stop it! Stay.
_______________
Dan Liberthson