When your dead come up to you,
sidle their way inside you, you have
a choice — not always obvious but still
a choice to keep them or let them go.

You don’t feel them inside you
the same way all the time, you know.
You don’t feel their surprising teeth
and can’t know the difference. No,

you need to speak of the dead
more calmly. You need to talk
gently to them, ask them
with compassion to let you go

and after a while, a short while
or a long time — they do. You sit back
and let them go and calmly watch them
as they go and then turn back

to your own affairs, to the business
of your busy life. You are unbothered
by the departure and after a while,
you sleep unbothered as well.

You are their ghost, after all.
You left this life long ago for theirs.
You are a ghost of their lives
and will be forgotten when they go

into whatever
they go into
as you will be forgotten
when you go.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
onward,
T