The Ghost, the Angel, and the Boundaries of Belief
A ghost lives in the gaps
left by shredded ligaments
in his separated shoulder.
He calls the final result
of the could’ve-been-fatal crash
“miraculous” and thanks gods
of a half-dozen religions, despite
self-definition as an agnostic.
No questioning the debt owed
to SWAT-team spirits as the car
rolled three times and landed
upside down. The top of the torn
left shoulder is where an angel
once landed after he prayed
(yes, prayed) for protection
of his most beloved, seven
and a half thousand miles
away. Could that guardian
have sensed sincerity, unlike
during his only other prayer –
to save his dying father –
when even his teenaged
self knew the cri de coeur
was opportunistic? Perhaps
he should unleash the shoulder-
ghost to crawl and spelunk
his neural pathways, probing
personal history, upending
rocks, to maybe, possibly,
find how to summon the angel
once more.
.
Kim Peter Kovac works nationally and internationally in theater for young audiences with an emphasis on new play development and networking. He tells stories on stages as producer of new plays, and tells stories in writing with lineated poems, prose poems, creative non-fiction, flash fiction, haiku, haibun, and microfiction, with work appearing or forthcoming in print and on-line in journals from Australia, Bangladesh, India, Ireland, Dubai (UAE), England, Poland, Scotland, Singapore, South Africa, and the USA, including The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts, Elsewhere Lit, Frogpond, and Mudlark. @kimpeterkovac – www [dot] kimpeterkovac [dot] tumblr [dot] com
