Wraith

You plead to me, you plead to me

     muted tones and unheard words

     intimately, profanely, silently

     trumpet of declaration wails

     invisible train passes through station

See him, hear him, know he’s still here

     the ghost of O’Sullivan

     no tales from dead men

     rats gnawing on feet

     fleeting apparitions lost

Leaving no shadow, snaking between worlds

     watching life past from hidden shelf

     soul passing through walls to other side

     O’Sullivan arose and stood by my side

     “I have done my time and must depart”

Piercing eyes begin to fade from view

     squinting in the fog of time

     empty buckets, nothing inside

     for a decade, he’s been dead

     still I hear his step in my heartbeat.