A poem that is an allegory for grief, attachment, and the refusal to let go.

On one level, it’s the literal voice of a ghost, a soul trapped in limbo.

On another, it could represent how living people feel when they cannot move on after losing someone they love — they too become like “ghosts,” trapped in the past, endlessly waiting for reunion.

It’s about love as both salvation and torment: the fire of love keeps the ghost alive, but also prevents him from finding peace.

Title.
The Monologue of the Lonely Ghost.

(A lone voice whispers)

I crossed over in March, on the fifth

In the year of our Lord
1902

All these years, I've sat
Patiently waiting for you

I've watched our old world
Burn

Through the blackest of nights

Witnessed hearts bleed with incomprehensible need

Seen corruption and illusions unfold, as the seduced welcomed, evil into their strongholds

Watched shining stars fall, thinking of my fate
As I wait

Thinking

When will she call me, and walk through that gate?

That I look to

Down that dark road, every second, whenever I think of you

I've looked in old memories that beckoned

Explored all the who knows, linked to sin

Chased paper boats, with endless time

Just hoping, she's coping high up in Heaven

And not broken
In the Deep Divine

But still perched upon this rock, I wait

Even though the Mendli think I'm crazy, but my old Love still cuts me open

Making me cling to an old life, with wild dreams of a new beginning

So, Angels, please forgive me but hear me quick

Take my hand and lead me home

To her

Give me the Star Fire, if this can't happen, or you can't do it

For I fear I can no longer wait, for the opening of that gate

So let me cross the burning sand barriers

Step straight through the eternal fire

For is waiting for true love, the price worth all this pain?

As one moves on, and one remains

Show me a happy couple, and I'll show you the fire that ignites

And it's that red light that I pray

Keeps carrying me on its horseback, throughout all these endless nights

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

A senryū exploring the paradox of love, freedom, and control, reflecting human psychology.

Title.
Smothered
#Senryū

(A lone voice whispers)

My love needs freedom
Inescapability
For we've gone too far

5/7/5

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

A haunting piece whose power lies in how it encapsulates the inner voice of doubt, that many experience, but rarely articulate.

Does it feel personal and universally relatable, a fragile cry that lingers in the silence after the final question?

The Monologue of Self Doubt

(A lone voice whispers)

There's a secret place I sometimes go
Where the birds don't play

For all hopes of love and happiness have flown away

A sacred place where the skies are dull and grey all day

Sailing by lonely, with nothing to say

As I pray to a strange God and whisper

Why did you make me this way?

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Have you been to Khartoum? The Black and White Island?

Where memory, myth, and prayer merges into a haunting meditation on loss and regret?

As once intimate and cosmic events, turns isolation into a path toward repentance and the possibility of transcendence?

Title.
Khartoum.
The Black and White Island.

(A lone voice whispers)

As I lay here, under my apple tree

With my head on my pillow

Looking at my only treasure
A white feather by the sea

I can still remember the first time, The Ebb, and Flow came looking for me

And I witnessed all those old things once hidden,
when my eyes couldn't see

When it engulfed me in its fine mists, of secret memories

The mysteries
Insecurities
Jealousy
Lies

And all other forgotten things

That Ebb and Flow from beyond the Great Sea,
Brought to me

Forgotten moments
Missed chances
Last dances

And the loneliness of standing in a dark circle, of never-ending silence

Gripped knee-deep in the black sludge of the Highlands

And now alone on this island, in the middle of a black sea

With only a white pillow
White feather and an apple tree, for company

I still see her
Skin as soft and white as snow

Dressed in blue Levi jeans
White tee
And black high heels

Blue sharp eyes

Beautiful and blonde like a young smiling Marilyn Monroe

Resurrected by the swirling grey mists of the Ebb and Flow

Which touches all things and binds to the spine

The past
Present and future

For they are the Pole stars of all good and evil

The collector and receiver of all things made of matter on Earth

By making the forsaken see all those hidden missed moments and mistakes

Like when I let that girl ride on her horse called Wildfire

Right out of my paddocks gates

When my heart took shell fire from Desire's Gatling gun

Is that why I'm stuck on this lonely island in the middle of this Black Sea

Sentenced to lay underneath this great apple tree

Inscribed with the many etched in names of past visitors

With a white pillow and white feather for company

So Lord,
Until I find the Repentance candle, to climb higher out of this darkness

Haunted each night
By the Ebb and Flow

About the girl with blonde hair

Who looked like a young smiling, Marilyn Monroe

Wearing blue Levi's and a white tee

On a horse called Wildfire
Who I once let go

Oh, Lord, Please forgive me

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers, looking at a photograph)

Do you still miss me
The one you left behind blowing your horn

When you crossed The Acheron

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Acheron:
One of the five rivers of the underworld.

The unspoken truth in the title hints at the silent suffering surrounding cancer:

Its emotional toll, the quiet battles fought behind closed doors, and how survivors are sometimes left to navigate grief.

If you're going through this, sending blessings and if you've been through it, sending prayers.

Cancer. The unspoken truth.

(A lone voice whispers)

Looking at our wedding photo,
Crying every night

Where did you go

Leaving me crying alone, at midnight

With my head held low, in the dark, no longer in the light

But deep down I'll always know, you had to go, the pain was just too much

So it's why now every night, your photo I clutch

Crying
Where did you go

Leaving me
No longer in the light

But walking in pains red snow

Knowing
I'll never be alright

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Have you been through this emotional, physical, and existential transformation from innocence into experience?

Or more precisely, from youth into adulthood?

Metamorphosis

(A lone voice whispers)

I still dream of the beautiful moments, when I was first introduced, to the Red Goddess called, Sin

Still feel her soft red fingernails, on my hard skin

Still taste her red lipstick, as I became her king or queen

And walked like, Adam and Eve, naked

Into my own Garden of Eden

As I remember the noises of the early morning Blackbirds

Who just loved to sing

When I became of age, and walked reborn, into an adult's skin

(C)
Copyright John Duffy