A Spiritual Return

Are there ghosts i can never see,

and why are they hiding from me?

Perhaps they need To be hidden

because return is forbidden.

Uncle George’s ghost i once knew

was hidden in the attic too.

With physical return denied

he needed some place he could hide.

After i had crawled into bed

“It’s very lonely here” he said.

Oh yes, he would come talk to me

in a strange camaraderie.

Although he never did appear,

he often whispered in my ear.

Did i make up this story?

To tell the truth, i’m not sure.

I did have a great uncle George

who fought in the civil war for the south.

After he died, my grandmother

stored his meager possessions

in the attic of a pre-civil-war mansion

which my grandfather had bought

in Acworth, Georgia before i was born.

During the great depression

my family lived in this old mansion.

My bedroom was upstairs and

adjoined the eight-foot-high attic.

A very old black woman

who was once a slave

told me the house was haunted.

Did i build a memory on these facts?

Walt Abbott –7/30/2009