Apparitions

I can close my eyes and see things

if I stare hard enough at the backs

of my eyelids - faint smudges of electric

blue form into the shape of the window,

a silhouette of a house roof and the

jagged demon of a tree. My retinas

remember the outline of a puddle,

where the sunlight blazed a grey green

shape like a temporary tattoo and I peep

to confirm yes, there was an island

in that puddle, a scattering of gravel

I had not known I'd seen before. My eyes

chase scintillating glitches across the sky

floaters, dots, lines and yellow moments

of energy, before I close them again

and stare at the sun through redness,

which as I stare harder fades to the most

iridescent blue green like exposed film. Ghosts

of sentient dark gather in the corners of

my thoughts, they play in the light and slink

back when I dare to study them gliding out of the

field of vision like crows, their shapes pecking

into the furnace, stirring coals, rearranging

my plans, until they settle down and burn.