A Game of Hungry Ghosts

A Poem

Photo by Piotr Makowski on Unsplash

ask of yourself —
when did it start,
and where did you lay?

ask of yourself —
when the tumult started
and what you had to do with it?

a truth stands universally acknowledged
that we are hungry ghosts, the lot of us,
trying to make sense of things
that have happened to us.

invisible scores
stand the test of time —
and we reckon we have no worth
until we actually stop to think of it.

another life goes unchecked,
and there’s so much we would
rather do, rather do, rather do —
but no one ever thinks to look.

(no one ever thinks to look)

i stood on a hill,
lapsed in my own judgments,
until the killing blow came —
and then there was a mercy (such a mercy).

i missed days
when i could just write
with abandon.