Gaurav Gurung

The Poltergeist

A silent weep and some tender sobs draw me close,

Close towards the shadowy figure standing in the distance,

With every breath – every step, the urge in me grows,

His cries get louder, matching my footsteps as I advance.

 

Around his neck is a garland of flowers and his body -pitch black,

His stench of cremation and deception is that of a wack,

He starts crying violently with every breath I take,

“Oh! Shut up, I’m just trying to help for God’s sake”.

 

(In a manly voice), “They killed me! They took my money”

(In a girlish tone), “They mutilated my corpse! They thought it’d be funny”

(In an ageing voice), “They killed me! They killed me for my property”

(In a sobbing sense), “They killed me for my thoughts, they called it Blasphemy” 

 

Startled I yell, “Don’t you dare pull a prank on me!”

I know your goon ways and I know about mimicry,

At that moment he looked at me with hollow eyes and nothing else,

Suppressed black it was, the feeling of cowardice in me nonetheless 

 

“I’m the embodiment of dead souls”, he says,

“Millions and Millions reside within me

I take in these wandering, tormented souls-

Unfortunates who never reached their goals.”

A betrayed lover who slit his nerves

A soldier who died on the field he served

A poor pregnant woman who died during labour

A poor fellow who was out of nature’s favour

“I am the home for all of them and soon yours”

 

“What?” I yell out, giving out a confused smile,

Then, it hits me:

 I’ve been dead for a while

A drunk driver hit me and I lay there dead, alone-

Today was my birthday and was in a hurry to rush home

I couldn’t move now that I had confronted the unknown.

 

He took my hand gently and added me into his collection,

I was one of the Poltergeists, one of his many complexions,

I shed a tear when I realised I won’t be seeing my loved ones anymore

A strange feeling came over me when I realised

 

I was NO MORE

 

I was but a Poltergeist!