They warned you
The elders
With a grim ironic smile
"You'll see.
"You'll be living with ghosts"

Foolish old people
What did they know
Life was to be lived
Death to be scorned

One by one
Gradually at first
Then the beginnings of a flood
Ghosts starts filling the mind
A father, a mother, a sister
The uncles, the aunts
Then the mates from school
The same age, their names
Slipping off into the darkness

"Do you remember...?"
"Oh yes I remember."
Oh yes I remember"
"Saw him a couple of years ago
Right as rain.
It was sudden.
Then the autopsies
"He drank you know."
"Oh boy could he drink."

Shadows grow longer
The ghosts are expecting company
As we sit waiting our turn.