Ghost
Robert L. Petrillo
Ghost n. 1. A disembodied spirit that lives on
after death, said in some cultures to wander
in once familiar places in desperate search
of a vital spark that once kindled a glowing heart
now grown cold with disuse and hard with regret.
2. A non-corporeal phantasm that preys on
the fears of living human beings, insinuating
itself into the waking nightmares of those
who have not yet laid to rest the doubts
and unacknowledged desires of their own
tangled lives. 3. In Christian theology,
the spirit of God that is somewhere between
Father and Son, referred to as “Holy,” and
as mysterious in its ways as it is baffling
and provocative to young children . 4. In yet
other beliefs, the transitional essence of any
conscious life-form moving from one physical
plane of existence to another, a momentary
rider on an endless train that stretches
from forever to eternity, one who stops,
intermittently, at various stations along the way,
hoping to remember his ultimate destination.
5. A memory a person has of another person,
often a past lover, one whom the person
having the memory can’t seem to shake off,
no matter how hard he tries; and no matter
how cerebral or spiritual or metaphysical
the explanation he gives himself and others,
it remains but a weak sublimation
for the loss that haunts him still,
for the one whose slowly fading image,
if there were alongside the definition
a picture, would be yours.
after death, said in some cultures to wander
in once familiar places in desperate search
of a vital spark that once kindled a glowing heart
now grown cold with disuse and hard with regret.
2. A non-corporeal phantasm that preys on
the fears of living human beings, insinuating
itself into the waking nightmares of those
who have not yet laid to rest the doubts
and unacknowledged desires of their own
tangled lives. 3. In Christian theology,
the spirit of God that is somewhere between
Father and Son, referred to as “Holy,” and
as mysterious in its ways as it is baffling
and provocative to young children . 4. In yet
other beliefs, the transitional essence of any
conscious life-form moving from one physical
plane of existence to another, a momentary
rider on an endless train that stretches
from forever to eternity, one who stops,
intermittently, at various stations along the way,
hoping to remember his ultimate destination.
5. A memory a person has of another person,
often a past lover, one whom the person
having the memory can’t seem to shake off,
no matter how hard he tries; and no matter
how cerebral or spiritual or metaphysical
the explanation he gives himself and others,
it remains but a weak sublimation
for the loss that haunts him still,
for the one whose slowly fading image,
if there were alongside the definition
a picture, would be yours.
This piece originally appeared in Issue 9 of Sky Island Journal. You can read it at https://www.skyislandjournal.com/issue-9-summer2019.
Rob is a former high school English teacher who currently leads a poetry workshop at The University of Southern Maine/OLLI and edits the OLLI Art and Literature Journal. His poems and essays have been published in several literary magazines and newspapers over the years, including Sky Island Journal, The Blue Mountain Review, and the anthology A Dangerous New World: Maine Voices on the Climate Crisis. He lives in the present in Westbrook, Maine, with his partner and their cat.