ghosts

by Shannon
(Layton, UT, US)

You lift your eyelids,
Exposing the gaping black holes that now remain,
They pull the starlight and drifting snow
Into a tornado of thoughts and memories,

You close your eyelids
And inhale,
Summoning those ghosts into your lungs
And push them out into the cold atmosphere
Where their smoky figures seem to dissipate
Only to find
When you take back a breathe
They rush in,
Expand in your mind
Dance on your eyelids
Claw at your brain
Slash at your lungs
Constrict your heart
A crazed animal desperate to escape