{"id":2085,"date":"2019-09-16T20:00:41","date_gmt":"2019-09-17T03:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/?p=2085"},"modified":"2019-09-15T15:33:06","modified_gmt":"2019-09-15T22:33:06","slug":"a-lament-for-ghosts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/?p=2085","title":{"rendered":"A Lament for Ghosts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Anthony DeGregorio<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Ghosts in the windows of apartment buildings
Along the Metro North Harlem Railroad Line
No longer look up or scramble to spread the curtains
For a better view with every rumble of each passing train,
Or to scare a weary commuter, or the\u00c2\u00a0
Weekend passengers heading to the city\u00c2\u00a0
For a play and dinner perhaps, maybe just a stroll
Through Times Square to observe lives and sights
They would never see back home in Valhalla, NY,
An hour north of the city, who may casually glance
Upward in the darkened direction of a broken window, through its
Spiderweb of cracks, and into a sagging cobweb of time-
Infested silence, catching a hollow eye socket or two\u00c2\u00a0
Of the lonely apparitions. \u00c2\u00a0
They have grown bored with life they no longer possess,
And remain suspended before TVs
Tuned to seventy-year-old movies
Whose stars are as dead as they are.
Translucent couch potatoes, their
Skinless feathery fingers\u00c2\u00a0
Attached to complex remote controls
In futile attempts to depress the proper buttons,
As they drop Princess Leia vinyl wine glasses of Scotch, or
Neon-red Elmo Sippy Cups of vitamin-rich carrot juice
They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve forgotten how to grasp or even drink from,
Struggling with anything tangible in the urban morning darkness
Of abandoned rooms and vacant lofts.\u00c2\u00a0 An orange aura of\u00c2\u00a0
Juice-infused mist veils the simmering air.\u00c2\u00a0 A warm carotene pulp oozes,\u00c2\u00a0
Puddles on the floor, condenses where their feet once felt the plush carpets and\u00c2\u00a0
Stained hardwood of the living.\u00c2\u00a0 Exasperated, they head to windowless bathrooms\u00c2\u00a0
To squat and rise repeatedly upon sinks and wicker hampers, their vacuousness\u00c2\u00a0
Twerking to the moist drone of lavatory Muzak from ventilation fans.\u00c2\u00a0 They\u00c2\u00a0
Long for an assumption into the fetid rapture of humidity\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s exhaust\u00c2\u00a0
Before finally giving up after unsuccessfully trying to flush themselves\u00c2\u00a0
Down high efficiency toilets, and squeeze through hair & scum-clogged\u00c2\u00a0
Drains, sadly unnoticed amid the uncanny melancholy of afterlife.
<\/font><\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Anthony DeGregorio Ghosts in the windows of apartment buildingsAlong the Metro North Harlem Railroad LineNo longer look up or scramble to spread the curtainsFor a better view with every rumble of each passing train,Or to scare a weary commuter, or the\u00c2\u00a0Weekend passengers heading to the city\u00c2\u00a0For a play and dinner perhaps, maybe just a strollThrough […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2085"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2426,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2085\/revisions\/2426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}