Last night you invaded my dreams again.
\nJust how long do you expect to hang around?
\nBut here you are,
\nA regular supernatural Jack-in-the box.
\nThere was a time when the dead
\nHad the courtesy to stay so.<\/p>\n
The first time I buried you was ten years ago.
\nYour constant presence was soothing.
\nI enjoyed your companionship,
\nBut life with the dead quickly palls
\nInto a six foot rut.
\nI suggested you visited
\nA little less often.<\/p>\n
That was fine for a while until your visits
\nBegan to interfere with the daily task
\nOf living. A job I do very well.
\nSo I put you back in the box
\nAnd turned the key; bringing you out
\nOnce in a while to check that you were dead.
\nBut you never were.<\/p>\n
Those last times, I thought I’d really nailed you.
\nExorcism: book of my words
\nAnd candle of our love;
\nGuttered of course.
\nBut the reading of the words named you
\nAnd you it was
\nWho rang the bell.<\/p>\n
It’s the sheer nerve of it though.
\nYou bear no resemblance to the original.
\nOh physically speaking, yes,
\nIf that’s the word for it.
\nBut you are too caring, too considerate,
\nToo full of love to have been you.
\nPerhaps that’s the problem.<\/p>\n
So I am seizing this conundrum, J.S.Watts was born in London and now lives and writes in East Anglia. Her poetry, short stories and book reviews appear in a variety of publications in Britain, Canada, Australia and the States including Acumen, Brittle Star, Envoi, Orbis and The Journal and have been broadcast on BBC and Independent Radio. She is currently Poetry Reviews Editor for Open Wide Magazine. Her debut poetry collection, Cats and Other Myths, is published by Lapwing Publications. Further details are available at www.jswatts.co.uk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Last night you invaded my dreams again. Just how long do you expect to hang around? But here you are, A regular supernatural Jack-in-the box. There was a time when the dead Had the courtesy to stay so. The first time I buried you was ten years ago. Your constant presence was soothing. I enjoyed […]<\/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-612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612","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=612"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":620,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612\/revisions\/620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThe you that was, the you that is, the you that isn’t,
\nAnd back in the box you all go,
\nSealed down forever with original failings.
\nWhat a laugh if he<\/em> could perform the last and final rites,
\nBut over ten years we’ve misplaced the body
\nAnd, anyway, I look good in black.<\/p>\n