This is a poem to the Earth, a poem to the Autumn
A love letter to Spain in and during the Fall
When sweetness and bitterness touch the cusp of Winter
Before Sister wraps herself in scarves and puts on her hat
You can still run barefoot in the rust-coloured soil
Run through the fields of gold and amber grains
Taste the honey of life with expectations
Soon to be tread upon by the footsteps of ghosts
The poster is there and it holds no meaning
What you saw inside those walls held sway
Never forgetting you are haunted by the image
Of an imaginary friend who will stand by your side
It’s not real, that’s what they all tell you
But you know better, because you have belief
Sister says that it is just pretending
But the Spirit is real and he does exist
In the distance the sound of dogs barking
Some malice wells up inside of her
The animal in her lap is so trusting
But she has set out to make it her fool
It tries to struggle while it can
Her hands wrapped around its throat
Its heart beating intensifies
Eyes roll back to see only the dark
Pencil scratches across the paper
Every word emblazoned with a memory
The ghostly runes of recollection
Sharing tales of childhood and death
As you walk out into the garden
Your face bathed in a golden light
Something is wrong with your sister
She’s not the same girl she once was
You try to cry out for a guardian angel
But God has forsaken you in your hour of need
No Mother and no Father to hear you
And dusk is falling on the hillside
You hear a howling in the distance
While you lay still in your downy sheets
No comfort here can they provide you
The Ghost is roaming through the house tonight
The scent of clay and the taste of honey
Visits you every time you close your eyes
The green grass of the fields where you wander
You step out onto the heavy train tracks
Following the trail of your invisible friend
Whispering his name to no one in particular
The ground beneath your feet hums and vibrates
The world around you only seems alive for today
There is a Soldier somewhere out there in hiding
Solemn and silent, distrustful, bloodied and afraid
Your gentle manners and naïve girlish smiles
Melt away his armour and now he might redeemed
But what is soft can always be penetrated
And to let down his guard is to let in pain
And there were shots fired in the darkness which
Echo eternally as blood pools into small lakes
Hot breath in the cold cloak of darkness
Heat on your face as you take in the sight
Blood spilt on stones within these four walls
No body here, nobody there for you to talk to
Something is wrong with that poor child
She fails to see connection or consequence
The smoke wraps its tendrils tightly around Sister’s lips
And you watch as she chokes on Papa’s only indulgence
Seek your sister, find her warmness, before she is gone
Before she grows old and turns to grey
All the tenderness and fondness of your companion
Will fade until the cold settles in her eyes
Something is wrong with your sister
And something is wrong with you too
You stare into the black midnight waters
Not a bit astounded by what stares back at you
Somewhere they are calling your name
It never reaches your ears where you are
Papa will regret not telling you the whole story
When they find you, you will already be gone
About innocence, it’s not what they think it is
Somehow you have learned early and understood
They look down on you with their jaded vision
Compromised by the repetition of pain and despair
This disappointment that you don’t understand yet
The emptying of rooms and the spaces in beds
Moving each other to separate places
That soon exist only inside of aging minds
Blankets and coats, the sense of home, such familiarity
The brown comfort of shelves and of tables
The chink of glass on the plate at your bedside
The cool air as you walk beyond the safety of love
Not only do you seek out more than is given
But you look for more than can ever be
Seeing things like ghosts and angels in the darkness
Following the footsteps of the unreal
These things will shape you, in part in their likeness
Your white nightgown like a spirit in the fog
Your eyes widen with a sense of wonder
When they find you, you will already be gone
