Corresponding with Ghosts

My son listens to
A Swedish band called
Ghost where the singer
Dresses like a mummified Pope
And one of their songs
Says, "If you have ghosts
You have everything,"
And it made me realize,
"We all have ghosts, don't we?"
One of the reasons
I distrust so many
People is that when I was
Growing up between the time
I was 10 to 12 years old,
My father was taking care of
The motel where we lived
And it took all he had
Just to make sure we
Could pay our bills
In Western Maryland,
And my mother had a nervous
Breakdown because
She was used to living in a city
Like Teheran, Iran
Where she had a maid
And friends
And now she was
Stuck in some trailer
And motel in Western Maryland
and my whole
Family, including myself,
spent several years
Completely isolated
From one another.
A therapist in grad school
Told me that because I was
So isolated from my
Family and had no real friends
To talk to, and I grew
Up alone from others,
I became isolated
And alienated from most people-
It took my two
loving children
To realize I could be loved
And break me from
My isolation,
To free me from
My ghosts of the past-

We can be set free
From our ghosts,
Don't you know?

Jean Jones graduated
With an MFA in Creative Writing
In poetry and has been
Published online in Aphelion Webzine
And Medusas Kitchen

Find more by Jean Jones in the Author Index.