I am thinking about ghosts
and other things that return –

A photo of a wedding dress
long embroidered lace
a veil
worn by a headless mannequin
standing at the top of the
carved curving
brown wooden staircase –

I pause
now I am looking at images
that will never become photos
only heavy imprints
on my mind
this is how I fathom the enigmatic man
sitting stone still yet fidgeting on the couch –

Words that now mimic
a multitude of thoughtless actions
which talk of, without precisely saying
“I love you with all my heart but
I am far too sad and
far too distant
to love you in this way” –

Now I turn around to see
a photo of three young men
but I only have eyes for the one
in a red t-shirt
so, I turn my gaze to look at
a photo of a handsome middle aged man
and the woman he loves –

This is not ordinary love
the grass is greener
this is heart song
the birds sing higher
this is devotion
and the price a person pays for such
blessed love –

She is gone now
gone to speak to the angels
the Christians would say
and he is left behind
not the young man in red
but the man inside the photo
a silhouette of two, half erased –

The moment she left the earth
I felt his pain acutely
traveling across the years
such a tugging, yearning
to discover who the young man in red
had become, help ease that pain
understand love as devotion –

From the corner of every photo flows
an ocean of memories and dreams
and now suddenly this sea
he is lost inside
is washing over me
pulling me out
without even a twig to hold on to –

I am thinking about ghosts
and other things that return