It’s the ghosts of words unspoken

Like shadows in the corner

They crawl out further

As each hour passes

And I dwell in that

Place

The things I should have said

Instead

I let them pass

With heavy thoughts

And a sigh

I didn’t know what words to use

And the time to use them

Completely passed me by

Now

It’s gone

So the ghosts live on

Reminding me

I should have tried harder

At

The

Time

If feelings could be simply lifted

Torn strips

Drifting

From one heart to another…

Yes!

No.

Instead we must load them with

Appropriate words

So over burdened

They flutter

To the ground

Some weighed down

Drowned before they are even uttered

Still the ghosts creep

It’s been a year

The odd thing is

They will think I don’t care

When it is the very opposite idea

Really

I cared too much

To drop a bit of fluff

A well worn line

Used a thousand times

Gathered somewhere in every card they threw out eventually

Along with dried dead flowers

And all the remainders

Of a lifetime now over

That’s not what my thoughts were about

Those condolences

Bereavements

Grieving things

They were –

Oh who cares now really

(Except me)

The time has past

Why does their echo

So outlast

The event

Because I didn’t send them out to comfort

Instead they loll about

Waiting for the time to come

When they will make it further than the tip of my tongue

The place just behind my heart

A deep

Dark

Well

Where love can eventually flow

Unimpeded

By the ghostly dread

Of those meaningful words which I should not have left

Unsaid

*what we do not do, the actions that we fail to take become part of our negative space – they never go away. Instead they become like ghostly weights.

Trite – that foul word

Regret – another

“Should have” – two evil twins that will haunt forever