Back To Home: A Litany

Back To Home: A Litany

-based on an untrue story

 

There is an empty house, on a road lined with tidy – trimmed lawns.

There is my cousin’s house next to it – not empty in persons but in spirit.

And there are two charred walls where another house stood.

And there, my cousin tells me,

Is a ghost.

And there, she tells me,

Is a match in the ashes.

 

There is a car – mine – parked on this road, littered with dents and bruises.

Its journey has been long, and constant, and

Here is the first place I’ve stopped in a long time.

There is hope that it won’t be the last.

And there, I know,

Is my own ghost,

Inhuman but myself.

 

There are good people here, warm and welcoming.

There are friendly smiles, and faces I have always known.

There are old memories in rooms I am happy to revisit.

 

But

 

There is something wrong with this town.

There are still secrets I haven’t found.

And there are still dust-kissed, drafty corners I haven’t seen, yet

There, I know

There are people on my side.

 

There is a lake out past the limits, out past the woods.

There is a house, on the shores.

And there, my cousin tells me,

Is a ghost.

And there, she tells me, are dead eyes in the deep.

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