Monday, February 21, 2011

Oh-Oh, Ghosts



At the Oak Lawn public library
where Jamie works
there are big rooms and small rooms,
doorways, windows and ghosts.

Where Jamie works
from the corners of her eyes
she sees things that are not there
when she looks straight at them.

At the Oak Lawn public library
ghosts are looked through and walked through
like doorways and windows
to places you cannot go or even see.

Ghosts are like the big rooms and small rooms
but they are shadows of rooms locked forever
at the Oak Lawn public library
where Jamie works.










I’ve heard from people I more or less trust
that true ghosts, ghosts we meet from day to day,
aren’t fleeting shadows in any way
but appear real and are solid, robust—

a ghost finger can draw pictures in dust.
It’s what a drawing in dust can portray
and be real, solid, robust—work and play,
know and say wonderful things, laugh, sigh, lust.

All this heavy machinery provides
cameras and lights to fashion a stage
of sorts under an actor or actress

to study what he or she shows and hides.
Words, or dialogue read from a script page?
A costume, or a beautiful white dress?


























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