The Haunting

[smokingboot]

He was swaying by himself
In a parlour of old bottles
Tobacco smoke and gin
And the scrape of a planchette.
I cried out, 'Where are you?'
And he danced on saying
'Don't call out to me.
You know I can't hear you.'

There is nothing behind the mirror
The walls dissolve watching
my laudanum kissed hands
refill the glass by his chair
The doctor tells the room
that it is empty
And all the ghosts agree
in their night music

To find their needle song
I mind no compass
For this is Hades
And I have always lived here.
In the silence of a folded map
There is no world
and this stillness
is all there ever has been.

Copyright and all rights reserved © Debbie Gallagher 12/10/15