Laying the Matter to Rest

Deep in thought the two of us
Spinoza and Camus

We won’t sit at night
In piano bars

Vainly seeking
What we no longer are

No, that chapter’s closed
And you’ve become a ghost.

You told me once
You’d lie awake
Afraid of steps on the stair

And you’d get up and check
With flashlight and knife
To find nobody there.

Are you frightened still
In your shadowy world
Of spirits that haunt the night?

Or have you become
One of them
And flee at dawn’s first light?

I wish you well
In that other realm
May no horrors trouble your sight

But I’d rather not visit with you
When you creak the stair tonight.