Ticket 2 Ride

You know I might not stay

It’s likely, people like me

We are ghosts, here one moment

Then, a whispery breeze tickling a tree

—

My surreptitious entrance

An early arrival, but I’m already gone

Swept away in a cloud-face

Gracefully, a majestic swan

—

A person’s worth is not on any ledger

Incalculable and wholly personal

No bank would use as collateral

But more than one man’s downfall

—

At night, the usual visions arrive

Circling over me like a ghost

Pointing the way, or just sway

Raising a hollow cup, a toast

—

My time burns off like an early mist

Sooner, rather than later I will go

Disappearing, but not forgotten

Remembered as a foreshadow