Ghost

[Neil Davis]

Flames come and go among the coals.
Transient, insubstantial, like me.
I am not cold.
The fire is not hot to touch.

Yet I find comfort in fiery colors,
And the memory of warm feelings.

I was reduced to feeling pain.
Now the pain is gone.

My name ….
I am sorry.
You don’t talk to what you can’t see.
Still, there is something I wish I could say.

I have waited for the next heartbeat.
I have lived through madness
When the heartbeat never came.

I listened to the sound of hearts breaking.

I felt joy at freedom from pain.
I watched moonlight ran across a lake towards me.
I saw a leaf blow right through me.

I miss things you take for granted.
A cup of coffee.
A bed.
News.
A conversation.

You could feel my presence if you wanted to.
You could catch my thoughts if you tried.
Some things did not end
The night I died.


Copyright October 2008 Neil Davis @ 55 High Road, Edenvale, South Africa.
Contact details: Neil Davis.
Cell: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]
Postal address:
P.O.Box 4614, Edenvale, Gauteng 1610, South Africa.

[Francis Don Daniels]

Neil,
You might not quit your day job, but don't stop writing.
It's great to see songwriters and musicians doing poetry.
Imagery in a poem is swell and all that other stuff, but without
the quality of music it's just not up to snuff.

[Leonid Vorobyev]

Very beautifully, very figuratively and poetically, even in a Russian translation

[Cheryl Antao-Xavier]

Neil, this is beautiful.

[Amir Hasham]

Hi Neil:
An excellent poem - eerie - yet not ghoulish . The soul departs, yet hankers for communion with the living and you have expressed that very well; I particularly liked the last stanza. Amir