Ghosts are all around him,
They’ve haunted him for years.
 
But it’s not the dead departed
Who prey upon his fears.
 
These ghosts are of those living
At times in his distant past.
 
They haunt with promises unfulfilled
From shadows each have cast.
 
Loves that once had held his heart
Then left his life too quick,
 
As he recalls who they were to him
Have tortures to inflict.
 
The girl when he was ten years old,
Another when he turned fifteen;
 
In his twenties some forbidden him –
At least, they should have been.
 
New ghosts are not created now;
He knows that’s for the best.
 
Since what aging ghosts he does have
Won’t let his memory rest.
 
This old man thinks of his youth today;
What he’d do if he lived it again?
 
He’d take more care in who he loved
And spare himself the pain.

Copyright©2009 Dan Wright