World Of Faceless Ghosts

World Of Faceless Ghosts
© Surazeus
2026 09 13

Stuck too long in her world of faceless ghosts, 
Sylvia lingers outside the new bookstore 
in crowded downtown of the thriving city 
where she was born and lived for sixty years, 
to watch real human beings pursue their dreams 
with faces made from masks of long-dead gods. 

Staring at brass statue of her ancestor, 
that gleams tall on high marble pedestal 
on the wide median strip between busy streets, 
where faceless ghosts drive cars with bold intent, 
Sylvia wonders what drove him to go west 
from Massachusetts to wild Illinois. 

Who were you, Captain James Sylvester Dudley, 
my grandfather five generations back, 
who migrated in wagon train of hope 
to found this town on the river shore 
where Cahokia had lived ten thousand years, 
Sylvia asks the lonely evening breeze. 

When I was young and full of lust to live 
as popular cheerleader in high school, 
I saw our great land of America 
as brave leader of world democracy, 
so I worked thirty years in real estate, 
helping families buy homes to live well. 

Now grand illusion of our noble state 
has crumbled into heaps of stinking lies, 
exposing world empire of national pride, 
like all other empires through history, 
that has grown from farm of Ragnar Lothbrok 
to vast Viking State of America. 

I see in faces of Americans, 
who swirl around me on their private quests, 
spirits of Vikings with sharp eyes of hope 
who sailed to plunder treasures of the world, 
expanding from Britain to colonize 
fertile lands with fierce passion to live free. 

Since fall of Troy we sailed to Skandia 
where we preserved our ancient warrior creed, 
then built America with wheel and ax 
to form military industrial complex 
with computers linked by world wide web 
through which we rule empire of factories. 

How can we escape world of faceless ghosts 
whose spirits drive our conquest of the world 
through agenda of the Christian program 
to crown our founder Jesus King of Earth, 
Sylvia laughs at absurdity of life, 
since we build illusions on ancient myths.