The Dead
by and published in Edition Seven of Pomegranate
Looking round the room you see brief glimpses of ghosts. You are the only one still up, reading by lamplight in your own cosy corner of the world. You write them off as impressions on your retinas from the day, the afterglows of important events. But they are humans, freed from their dry tired lives. Their faces blur when you look straight at them. They are not disturbed when you say out loud: ‘You don’t exist.’ They have faith in whichever death they have inherited.
- * *
Looking round the room you see ghosts, laughing and lighting up each others’ eyes. They have made a breakthrough – to see each other, to speak and hear each others’ laughter. It drives them wild, almost alive. They are wrecking the living room, scattering piles of paper and scrambling LED displays. You stagger to the kitchen and step outside the back door for some air. To your surprise and dismay, the door opens back into the living room, where the ghosts are dancing the conga.
- * *
Looking round the room you see the human ghosts are joined in the conga by ghosts of pets and roadkill. Cats and rabbits, a squirrel, a hedgehog, badgers and hamsters all dancing single file. They follow you to the kitchen, stepping only where you step. You know instinctively that these are the souls you were personally responsible for, but you don’t feel that guilty – life feeds on life – until you roll up the blinds and see the poultry, cattle, game and seafood marching in a line towards your gate from around the block.
Simon Wyon
Simon Wyon is 27 and currently studying for an MA in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University. He likes stringed instruments; the pleasant twang of banjo helps to quell the inevitable self-loathing that accompanies his temporal incontinence (He submitted his poems just after the deadline – Ed). He has had a couple of prose poems published in de Facto, a journal based in Bradford-on-Avon but that’s it as far as publishing goes. He is interested in gluten-free cake and why there are so many stories about plane crashes on the news when he is just about to fly long haul for the first time in five years.