A Ghost Lurks About My Windows

A ghost lurks about

The windows of this old house

I never see it clearly

But catch it out the corner

Of my eye

In a reflection of odd light upon the glass

Or a sudden movement or shadow

It must duck quickly

Behind the bushes

Or around the corners of the house

When I try to peer through the glass

To get a closer look

But it always returns again

As soon as I turn back my head

About my daily business

And sometimes

Sometimes

I catch a glimpse of its forlorn face

When the light oddly strikes the glass

Superimposed upon the reflection

Of my own wrinkled, empty face

I do not know its name

Or why it lurks about so

Or what it might want from me

So I've learned to close the blinds

And often shutter the windows

And lurk about myself inside

In the shadows of the darkness

Without light

And sometimes,

Sometimes

When the rain falls steadily

And it is wet and cold outside

Or when the lightning strikes close by

Or I hear a dog barking far off

In the distant stillness of the night

Or when the moon shines bright

Or when the wind blows heavily against the blinds

I think then the ghost

Just might want to come inside

And I wonder to myself

At such times

And some other times

Whether or not it is a truly harmful being

Some stranger of a nether land

Bound by the angular shadows

Of this old house

And I think 

That it might even be happy sometimes

Sometimes

When I leave the windows half open

And the blinds pulled half up

When the wet wind blows

Through the house 

From the coming storm

Or the cool still night air

With the moon beams dancing

On the leaves of all the nearby trees

And the shadows all in eerie motion

I think it is my constant friend

And secret companion

There perhaps

To remind me

And never to let me forget

That life on this planet

Is at best an ephemeral

A fleeting thing

And the day and the nights

And all the moments in between

Many moments in between

But transient guests we are

In this world

And sometimes

Sometimes

I think 

That a part of that nether land

Hidden in the shadows

Of this corners of this old house

Is a part of me

And my memory

Of past places

And empty faces

To be filled with fleeting feelings

This ghost lurking about

Perhaps reminding me

Never letting me forget

That all these things

Will not long last

And are soon

Gone away

Never to return again

Except perhaps

Sometimes

Sometimes as a dream

Or a formless phantom