To A Ghost

To a ghost

Why should you,

who had no shield, stand guard for me?

How would  you cleanse,

when you never got a leg up from the muck ?

What kind of guide would you make,

who stumbled one-eyed in the half-light all her life?

And why should you forgive,

who never had a decent shot at  sin?

It's too stupid even to talk to you.

You do not listen. You are not there.

Not a look out perching on my shoulder.

No becalming whispers in my sleepless midnight ear.

Your only haunting is a question

that permeates the air

though I can find no answer

and you will never tell.

For what, ghost, do you come here?

For what, my angel,  did you live?