The Ghost of My Childhood

"Some ghosts don’t rattle chains—they live quietly inside us. This poem is for anyone trying to make peace with the absence of what never was."

The Ghost of My Childhood

I used to hear people speak of you,

But I could never rejoice—I could never weep.

I would have loved to learn how to love you,

But how could I, when my soul and heart had no faith in you?

A ghost, still alive.

A ghost, far from its body.

Here is the ghost that haunts my lifeless heart—

A heart always haunted by unfounded memories.

You were like the tales told to children:

Welcoming, amusing... but nonexistent.

I never truly believed in those stories—

Perhaps because they were never clarified.

You were burning, like a blazing fire I could not put out,

Shining like a star I could hardly reach.

Like a rose, your beauty and kindness

Were shackled by the thorns of your mind.

And like a never-ending nightmare,

I was always haunted by the idea of you.

The ghost of my childhood.