Hanukkah Unto the Earth
(on the first full day of
Hanukkah, my time)
Hanukkah means to dedicate
The miracle was that the Temple
Could be dedicated, repaired of
Damage in the holy place, though
Still a vital need of oil for light
No oil found, then only in a
Small amount—and yet the
Temple space was sanctified
Because the light burned bright
For days, well beyond
The oil’s given time
Who doesn’t need light and
Miracle? We all need
To celebrate these, don’t we
Ghost
it is like us because it was us
breathing, living once like us
ghost become, be-turned in death, untimely
and unfinished
are they real?—we are real, and
we’re the ones who make the ghosts, for
they were us
we know a ghost of one kind lives
we meet it every day: anything that
haunts us in our daylight lives, the
choices and the acts we want to leave
behind but carry with us in a lingering
way not finished
we make our ghosts, and they haunt us
the other kind?—well, why not, since
so much of us is left behind, undone
so that we carry it in some
unresolving way
after dust, before heaven
what we leave that’s extreme and
exigent persists
so we make the ghosts, and they persist
is it bad, then, on one day a year, we celebrate
the ghosts this once?—and then again next year
Happy Hallowe’en
while remembering
they will be
clcouch123 
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