Keep the music playing
don't leave me alone
with my haunting thoughts

Scratches on my neck
And blood in my mouth as I wake.
Faces
I see faces,
Voices,
I hear your footsteps behind me,
Is my life at stake?

Eyes open
Laid bare
But I cannot move!
Flesh out my mouth
Snake bites my neck,
What have you got got to prove?

My mind,
A haunting ghost
Stares at me wide eyed,
Open mouth,
It’s a black shadow
Full of sorrow
And it feeds me
Guilt and doubt
Until tomorrow
Until tomorrow

"Make me!"
she cries
"Make me feel again!"

I can't help with that at all
Her frail ghost has suffered so much

She has traveled the world and seen any and everybody
Every single grave except her own
For she can not bear it.
But yet she can't feel

There's no happiness
There's no envy
She sees people living and loving
But with a poker face, she stares at me

But my emotions are not gone
And the pain she yearns to feel embodies in me
As if life has been taken from her and now resides in me
But I still feel lifeless
(This isn't about me...
It's about my nameless friend.)

I want to reach out to comfort her
and she doesn't even know she needs it
This **** ghost that finds comfort in my room
Haunts me forever
ironically enough
But I can't reach out to her and I can barely hear her
Her voice is a whisper
Even when she yells
(She should be glad she doesn't have a real throat since she yells so much)

"I know!"
she cries.
"I know you hear me!"

I can't answer that anymore.
I need to tune her out to escape my turmoil.

I saw a thousand stars
but a thousand stars up
above the sky is no match
for your beautiful eyes.

If I were to die, I'd want my
heart to haunt you
until we meet again;

Please be the light of my
candle for I will be needing
your warmth in this darkness.

Please be the flame of my
candle so when I depart,
my heart will spend time
haunting your ineffable flame.

© Aaron Salagubang, 2020

It’s hard to find an even house:

foundations settle at creation,
doors will sag from slamming,

tiles will chip from drop pots,
careless feet scuffing along,  
days when they sweat and cry,

bricks will crack, driveways too—
settling into a haunting beauty,

everything tilts differently,
microscopically altered
from your last place.

Yet, you wonder
if the windows
will stick in winter,
stay open in summer .

You wonder where will
the dust angels hide,
what room can you
see the stars clearly.

The screened in porch,
you notice, let’s
in too much sun.
  
You feel its heat
on your arm
during the tour.

Will it hold your gravity,
if it can’t hold its own?

The air conditioning
shrieks like a ghost.

You hear squirrels
dancing in the attic,
the ones that will
keep your dog
barking all night.

You look for the line
where the water stopped.

The angst settles in you
like night fog, like a lifetime
of settling that ***** you in,

The heavy rain comes
in amounts that
can’t be bailed fast enough.

The house is a lake.
The lake is inside you,
and in the collapse
of the roof, you see the sky.

The house starts floating away
and you disappear inside it.

don’t you dare try to come back,
a haunting memory is all you’ll ever be.