Community Of Lost Ghosts

Community Of Lost Ghosts
© Surazeus
2024 08 02

Silver gleam over far green-shadowed hills 
pierces my heart with longing to see you, 
so I pause from my wandering nowhere 
to sit on fallen log in swirling mist 
and play sad haunting tunes on walnut flute 
to call your ghost from across the waste land. 

Lost souls cast out from their communities 
who wander homeless in bleak wilderness 
become nameless ghosts with no families 
who always find their way on signless road 
to hidden valley of the glowing cloud 
where I welcome them to dwell safe and free. 

I carve thoughts of my heart on ancient stone 
with runes I saw in flicker of sunlight 
on smooth white stones in shallow clear blue pool 
to record strange memories of my youth 
which flash as illusions before my eyes 
so I think ghosts of the dead haunt my heart. 

I want to restore my friends back to life 
with breath of hope I inspire from the sky 
so voiceless spirits coded as their names 
may animate their bodies with their dreams 
that motivate performance we express 
to play confounding dramas of desire. 

I sense the dead around me in the air 
though my eyes cannot perceive their firm forms 
so I call out their names with anguished cry 
that echoes in lonely woods of my heart, 
yet only unseen chirping birds reply, 
so I fill baskets with mushrooms and eggs. 

Descending from mountain slope of mute faith, 
I pause on bridge of stone my father built 
to listen for secrets the dead may share 
in careless babbling of the snow-fed stream, 
then return to town where nameless ghosts dwell 
who gather in our fire-bright hall to feast. 

Reposing on large chair carved with two crows, 
after nameless ghosts finish evening feast, 
I play sad haunting tunes on walnut flute 
that weaves sweet melody of wordless angst 
to bind our hearts with old religious faith 
of shared experience in this bitter world. 

Though we fight hostile forces to survive, 
and must scrounge for food from indifferent Earth, 
we work together in our secret town 
as nameless souls exiled from human worlds 
to build new community of lost ghosts 
who find new home with fellow refugees.