APPARITIONS

APPARITIONS

I see apparitions,

People and things not really there,

Like the fat man in our dining room,

Sitting on our one good chair.

Beside him sits his fine wife Mabel,

Who has emptied the contents of her purse 

Upon the dining room table,

Probably hoping to find a cough drop or a piece of candy,

A Werther's original would sure come in handy.

And where are the waiters with the starters and drinks?

My, but I'm tired and could use the forty winks!

 I pass the fat man and Mabel on my way to my room

 Where I find an old lady sitting at a loom.

She doesn't look up from her weaving,

So I pick up the novel I've been reading,

Continuing where I left off.                       

When morning came, the old crone was still weaving,

Showing no intention of leaving.

And another shady figure had arrived in my room,

A girl barely eighteen, carrying an infant in her arms,

Her presence set off all kinds of alarms,

I pulled a CD from my music shelf, thinking it would calm,

For music has been such a healing balm,

It wasn't metal music, nor was it steel

It was "Come In From The Rain" by Captain and Tennille.

The young girl had written insulting words on the CD case,

A list of grievances against me she would not say to my face

My partner knocked, then came into my room,

I told him all about the girl and the old crone at the loom

The fat man and Mabel at the dining room table,

The defacement of the CD case.

You are seeing things not here, my partner said,

Patting me fondly on the head.

It was not mitosis nor osmosis,

It was Parkinson's psychosis,

A phenomenon occurring in the late stage of disease,

With wild hallucinations and delusions if you please,

So I now see apparitions,

People and things not really there, 

Like the fat man in our dining room,

Sitting in our one good chair.

-Bruce Potts

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