Dina and Dan Realize the Meaning of Ghosts

I am at a loss, as in, in bed
and here I stay until my
eyes have sprouted flowers,
o magnolia, o sweet pink rose,
the south is in springtime right now,
a February of springtime, the Japanese
violet bloom, Japanese elm in fall,
how everything is weeping with spring,
as if winter almost killed us all,
as if flowers in winter almost kill
everyone at the thought. Chill,
and then chill, frozen ground,
fooled the tulips into believing something
Other, how we are the Other, chilled
and then nothing, not one thing.

In bed, there are ghosts.

In this bed, your ghost.

I dream of my grandfather and then
there are two grandfathers and then
I say out loud in my sleep No!
There cannot be two of you!
You are dead! And when I wake,
this bed, this icicle outside, take
pictures and look at them.

What does all the photographs
from your entire adulthood look like
in this sea of fire? Pull them out,
brush them off, ash, ash. It is one
big pile of plastic. Smiles, and then
smiles and then. Why do you always
have your tounge out in photos, its
disgusting, its not even cute.

In bed, this ghost of my grandfather.
How we grandfather anything in at all,
what does it mean to grandfather. He
used to speak of progeny, as in look
out of the vastness and see my progeny.
I am at his feet in silence, I am sitting
close to him, holding his rabid hand
saying, I love you I love you I love you
and he is saying, I love you I love you
I love you.

Understandable, this season. Understandable that years ago,
we left each other around this season, we were young and
in love. We were young, at least. We were in love, secondly.
We were at the foot, thirdly. O bed, each bed, I crawl into
I lose sight immediately.

My dream where I am kissing you and I am masculine,
I am on top of you, I can feel your small frame and body,
I am a mass on top of you, I am a mass inside of you
and then later, I tell anyone, I tell everyone,
later I figure who it was, it wasn't you after all,
but some Other who I do not know. When did I stop
dreaming of you. I am a man and now I am not.
What happens when you wake up a man and
you are not. What happens when you look down
and there is nothing between your legs but winter.