Place of Refuge

Place of Refuge

22 December 2010

Ghost Radar

So I have this thing called
"Ghost Radar"

on my iPhone.



And
whether or not it's a legitimate way
to find ghosts
is under some debate.

However, mine is quite active.

What it does, see,
is it spits out words.

I can fully understand the critique
that the thing is just
"spitting out random words."

It does appear that way.

Though I will admit that
on more than a few occasions,
the Ghost Radar
has responded to the situation
appropriately.

Consider,
for instance, 
the time I sat down to eat
this delectable lamb chop
and salad and rice,
and the Radar was on,
and it said:
Yum!

Or the fact it keeps
identifying itself
when I turn it on at work
as the man whose
tenure track line
I filled.

He vacated it
by dying,
by the way.

Oh, well,
Right?
Coincidence,
yes!


**
Several months,
while I was sitting
and playing
my guitar,
I had the radar out,
and it spat out these words:

Broke
Ourselves
Consonant
Jet
Younger.

Now, what the hell is that?
You might wonder.
Random words.

Random or no,
I used them as the basis for a poem
(by me)
and here that poem
is:


Brokeourselvesconsonantyounger

Broke ourselves in two
consonant to the power
of the jet that propelled us,
younger,
                          backwards,
                                               with no glances
                                                    save
                                            the last ones
                                                                                that we shared.

I believe there was
something real
        despite
                         the odds stacked against us ---
I believe there was
love
                             like neither of us
                       felt possible.

(by Makropoulos --

if you're going to cut
& paste that,
please keep the line
by Makropoulos!)

* * *

The words after that,
by the way,
were:

Sound
Pot
Casey
Italian
unit

Now honestly,
I could do nothing
with them.


Random Words

1 comment:

Debra She Who Seeks said...

Well, whether or not it detects ghosts, you detected a poem!