Daye 74 / Katie And I

one night
katie and i
climbed up onto stormy point
to sit for a while
in the darkness
watching the world carrying on below us
we drank red wine
ate cheese and apples and chocolates
told tales to each other
and to the ghosts who lived in the woods
most of whom were content
to flit in and out of our sight occasionally
until some came right out of the trees
they hovered just above the ground
leaving a silver trail as they moved around
we coaxed one of them
into a beautiful glass bottle
and we took it home with us
we even gave it a name
until i began to feel sorry for it
and one night months later i opened the bottle
to set it free

but the ghost would not leave our house
now it roams at will
the small brown attic
the white staircase
and the silver kitchen
sometimes it plays a few stray notes
on the harmonium or the piano
or it strums a half-chord on one of the guitars
sometimes it drums softly on our bedroom door
at 3am in the morning
or sings our children back to sleep when they awake
in the middle of the night
it watches
over us
it's here now
looking over my shoulder as i type

years later
we went back to stormy point
and we walked out onto the edge
in the night blue dark
we dared not look down
but we looked down
caught a glimpse of a tiny silver boy
and then another
the glowing ghosts who came out of the trees to play that night
said that the silver boys were from the future
we were mad and we were glad
and we were heavenly
and katie and i used to sleep through the mornings
to sing and work and play all through the night
and we saved up all of our dreams
to spend them only on the things we needed most