Who I Was
Is Not My Dawn
Who I was
Is not my dawn
He has died now
I must grieve.
Who I was
Is not my dawn
His eyes seeing fear
When looking about.
Who I was
Is not my dawn
His ears listening
For intruders hidden.
Who I was
Is not my dawn
His mind building
Cages for his soul.
Who I was
Is not my dawn
His body is cold
On this humid morn.
Who I was
Is not my dawn
The service over
And dirt shoveled.
I am my own dawn
I am not afraid of me
Wherever my path
Will be.
At night
My back
‘Gainst the sheets
My arms
Spread wide
My hands
Hanging over
Bed’s edges.
It is now
I pray
It is now
I seek
Angels
Visions
Escorts into Dreamtime.
How forgetful, I
Not finding them
At first
Then walking with them
In twisted landscapes
In people
All visiting
From the waking world.
At sunrise
My side
‘Gainst the sheets
My fingers cupped
Held
Close to my face
It is now
I pray
It is now
I seek
Angels
Visions
Escorts into a waking world.
I see them
I feel them
In twisted landscapes
In spirits
All visiting
From the dream world.
They
Speak with no words
Think with no thoughts
Know beyond empathy.
I, the intuitive one
Alone at my keyboard
As they
Gather and pass
Gather and pass
Gather and pass
With Light
With Truth
Passing through
This body’s envelope
At least for one
Eternal moment longer.
When
Your body feels chills
Your head aches
Your stomach roils
And
You’ve
No virus
No fever
No sickness.
When
Hammers fling off a ladder
By themselves.
When
Cold spots
Develop in a warm house.
When
Floorboards creak
Under the weight of thin air.
When
Moans and cries
Fill the empty silence
And
Your pets respond
To
Someone
Something
Some one thing
You cannot see
You cannot touch
But
You do feel
You do know
You do sense
That
Creeping, creeping, creeping
Evil and angst
That immerses
You in your fears
That immerses you
In all those hells
You
Keep so far inside.
Perhaps
(Just perhaps)
Your fortress has been breached
A barrier has blocked your light
And
Your soul is on the verge of being violated
By
An unwanted evil spirit.
A ghost
A demon
A poltergeist:
The label is unimportant.
A ghost
A demon
A poltergeist:
Your hell is becoming you.
A ghost
A demon
A poltergeist:
Its presence overwhelming
Its fear paralyzing.
What to do?
What to do?
What to do?
How
Can you cleanse
A space so polluted?
How
Can you purify
A space so soiled?
Ask!
Ask the evil spirit!
Ask!
“Are you
Of
Christ?”
“Are you
Of
The Great Spirit?”
“Are you
Of
The Angels?”
If
“No,”
The denial sensed,
The spirit wincing,
As if recoiling in fear and pain,
Then
Proclaim
With complete faith
Proclaim
With absolute conviction
“In the name of Christ, be gone!”
“In the name of The Great Spirit, be gone!”
“In the name of The Angels, be gone!”
(Whichever faith calls you home).
Be
Prepared
For
The bastard prick
The spirit bitch
Slamming things
Pounding walls
Emitting wailing.
If need be,
Find
Sage to burn
Find
Angels to fill
The violated space
Until
Serenity returns
And
Ghost
Demon
Poltergeist
Becomes the past.
John David Higham 