Tristan Robert Lange

Phantom

There was a child

Who longed to live

Life and true love

Of which he’d give.

 

Dreams of sunlight

And garden trees

Bearing much fruit;

Ripening to please.

 

Days of innocence,

Of playful dreams,

Came to a hault

Like dried up streams.

 

The garden a pox,

Death it became,

Dusty and desolate,

A remorseful shame.

 

His house a tomb,

Cursed with decay.

The boy now a man,

Innocence betrayed.

 

Dust and bones,

A mortal coil,

The living dead

Becoming a foil.

 

Withered garden,

A decrepit tomb,

There’s no way to

Retreat to the womb.

 

Death-head agape,

Displayed on a shelf.

The boy’s a phantom,

Of his former self.