“Adieu, adieu, adieu. Remember me.”
Hamlet, Act I, sc, v, 98
Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem
If you were ghost and I were ghost with you,
Would specter mouths be tempted, bringing lips

Together in our graves? Would you want blue
Eyes, women and their breasts at fingertips
Although they could not touch, not really? Would
I, faceless, face again your turning face,
Your non-existent face, your mouth like wood
On mauve-lipped Maori gods? Would such disgrace
Come round again, the incarnation of
Rejection but without the flesh this time?
Would transmigration of the soul of love
To spectral liplessness be your last crime?
If we were ghosts together, would you stain?
Would you give anything but mist-lipped pain?
~ Phillip Whidden
by phillipw | Feb 26, 2025 | CH, ST, Uncategorized |