Ghost Word

Ghost Word

And as imagination bodies forth the forms of things unknown, the poet's pen turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothings a local habitation and a name.

- William Shakespeare from A Midsummer Night's Dream

I see you every night when I am writing.

 At 10pm

     you stand

        under the sodium light,

           opposite my window.

               I cannot know you as

                  you are diabolical, dark

                    and mysterious.

I see you look at my face

        in the window.

          I am deaf and

              your mouth moves,

                  but I cannot see what you say.

                      A fedora hides your mouth.

                           The Trench coat

                                  hides your soul.

A puff of smoke from your cigar

           twirls up like

               a wraith, and

                  it's scent enfolds me.

                      It says you are Lucifer.

                            You are in my brain, my imagination.

                                  You are my obsession.

  But, I  have no fear  as

       I  know you are an error,

           a misrepresentation.

             You are a ghost word.

                You don't exist.

                                     

Diana Leighton May 2011

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¹   Ghost Word  -  is a non-existent word entered into the second edition of Webster's New International Dictionary by mistake.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dord