Ghosts
by David Ackley
…ghosts still resentful, ghosts far from home…
After Hwang Sok-Yong, The Guest
Mine are more benevolent I like to think,
though it may be Yankee reticence
to ignore the horror
for the milder sense.
If they resent, they keep it close.
I tell Harry and Fred about the grandkids,
Fred's great-great, and Harry's great;
they try to smile their calcified lips.
And for Uncle Philip,
how his medals finally came, and adorn my wall.
To them it matters not much what I say
To the dead all talk is small.
Talking to bones and scraps, words in the dark
though, for all that, if I were them—and I am—
what I'd want to hear.
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Author's Note
memento mori
Other stories by David Ackley
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Love this. Especially "To the dead all talk is small."
Very fine.
Enjoyed
Yes. *
Thanks Mathew, Eamon, Gary and Charlotte for the attention and your comments.
Especially, "To the dead all talk is small."
"To the dead all talk is small."
*
Thanks, Bill and Kitty. Guess everybody likes that line.
This is novel, too, for the reminder that not all ghosts carry grudges or griefs: I like the domesticity of their concerns, don't ask why but it reminds me of what I've long thought I would be able to hear were I to visit the Capuchin Convent in Palermo.
Fine work, David.
Thanks, Edward. I'll take a virtual trip to Palermo on your say-so.
Enjoyed this very much. Thought of Italy, too, even before reading strannikov's comment. Perhaps because ghosts are so much more palpable there compared to many other places. Of the imagery ,the "calcified lips" will stay with me most & the ending, which is really great. It closes the piece and opens up a new space through the last line.
Thanks F.F. , so glad to hear from you with this very resonant comment. The quote at the head is from a Korean poet, and the uncle in the poem is my uncle Philip who is still missing in that country. Ghosts are a cultural universal it seems, one of the few that still unite us as humans.
best to you in Berlin
David