The Ghost of us it haunts me still
When we’re together or apart
It shadows me against my will
The Ghost of us lives in my heart
No matter what I try to do
It rattles chains that sound your name
I wake and think of only you
The Ghost of us inside my brain
It pulls away and then returns
It tears apart then gathers trust
It grants a kiss for three it’s spurned
It tempts with bliss, this Ghost of us.
And no matter how I might
Try to forget, distract my mind
It keeps me up all through the night
This Ghost I cannot leave behind
No matter how you treated me
And found another in my stead
I close my eyes and all I see
This Ghost of us inside my head
It laughs and loves and teaches things
It compliments and raises toasts
It’s flowers, food, and sex and wings
It is a most seductive ghost
A rose, a song, some poetry
A glance, some secret confidence
A smile, a touch, a hand on knee
This Ghost of us is all we miss
The Ghost of us it haunts me still
When we’re together or apart
It shadows me against my will
The Ghost of us who owns my heart
Though I forgive I can’t forget
and every time the Ghost arrives
I pray that peace will find me yet
But until then the Ghost survives
So still this Ghost it preys on me
Whenever its foul games commence
It nibbles at my flesh in need
And never will be recompensed.
- David Crosby once wrote a song called, "Song No Words (Tree With No Leaves)" and while that song is more beautiful and hopeful and sounds like a summer drive near Muir Woods, the title suddenly seems naked and exposed and sad, like I felt when I wrote this. Most of the above is from 2007, the last few stanzas revitalized after a particularly stale bit of retrospection in early 2011. This one is for the Boris in all of us.
