I do not understand them
Why they ostracize my home
The house that I live in
And been living for quite sometime

Friends I have few (But who has friends in the city anyways?!)
Was a loner as long as I can recollect
All day I sit on my desk and scribble
At nights on life I retrospect

They called the house haunted
This very house that I live in
(Maybe they saw the cobwebs in the basement
Little realising the art within!)
I do not hear them, let alone see
The spirits that supposedly reside with me

But one night on the attic while I was scribbling
A story about a lonely writer
I heard a slight sound – a knock
Of the door closing, creaking tighter

I climbed down the stairs
Carefully tip-toed
Saw a woman in a white gown
Blonde locks hanging down
Yes, she has to be the one
The ghost at last I found!

Terrified at first, I was stuck in painless silence
Unending, unforgiving, my feet were numb
Crouched on the stairs, heart in mouth, knowing not
Whether to run, or scream aloud!

Then came a second knock
Who could it be now?
It’s been long since I had a visitor
Were there more of them now?

The saintly spirit answered the door
And in came a man from the other world
Together they seemed to smilingly whisper
"There is no-one, we are alone..."

Shocked out of my wits
My life was at stake
Moving back I stumbled on the vase
A shattering sound it did make

They shrieked, and shouted "Who’s there?"
And that was when I rose up in fright
The woman screamed, the man grabbed her
They both bolted out of sight

As they ran, Jon cried out loud
And Matilda nodded in too
"What they said was true, my dear
...what they said was true!"

Comments

  • Ashish Anand (on August 8, 2008) : Witty in a very peculiar way. Apparently, the poem gives an idea about Saikia’s current state of mind. Nice one Saikia. Keep posting more poems 🙂

  • Ipchita Bharali (on August 9, 2008) : A very amusing one again.. kind of reminds me of the movie "The Others" but it has its own uniqueness.. i must visit your blog more often for these delightful treats 🙂

  • Himangshu Saikia (on August 11, 2008) : Well, I forgot to mention my inspiration for this one! Indeed it was influenced by my dear friend Anubhaw's description of "The Others" (but he didn't mention the name of the movie at that time), as well as the exquisite (read: "jaw-dropping") ending of "The Sixth Sense" which remains etched in my mind till today 🙂

  • Arpit Garg (on December 11, 2008) : Nice one Saikia da!

  • Sarang Sharma (on March 17, 2009) : Haha... Cool poem man... "The Others" to yaad aayi sahi mein... But I also remembered a joke -:
    Ghost1 (to ghost2) – Have you seen that human who lives above?
    Ghost2 – Rubbish. There is no such thing as a human. 🙂

  • Maharnab Hazarika (aka Maya Butler) (on January 21, 2012) : Never could write anything ghostly or haunted. But loved it..:) specially your mentioning of disregarded details in brackets.