A Ghost Story

You are no longer haunted once you’ve let it go

Jolie Man
Paper Poetry
2 min readMay 13, 2024

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Wineglasses by John Singer Sargent (1856–1925), Collection of The National Gallery, London, showcased in Hong Kong Palace Museum, 7 April 2024 (author’s photo)

Same apartment, different assumptions.
Clearing out your compartments, seeing no reconstruction,
of the things that have been broken.
Yet, the memories could never be stolen.

The magic of that same old sentence was gone.
Withdrew from the game, there’s no one left to be the pawn.
Run! Run away from your old haunt,
quick enough so the two ghosts couldn’t taunt.

You see the face that used to be your favourite in this universe, one that isn’t grim.
Strangely, not when you look at him,
but when you glimpse…at that ghost who almost got you,
a kind and sincere spirit, an eternal youth.

Fled back to your own lawn,
out of the woods, you mourn.
It’s time for you to read the eulogy,
for the two brave soldiers, who finally made their apologies.

Together with the good old days, they could now live happily ever after…
in an imaginary castle, spinning together,
as you declare “So long, let bygones be bygones.”

the manuscript

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