Deadbook

Sara L. Russell 13/2/23 at 01:45

There is no social media for the dead.

No matter how much you want to check in

with their world as it might be now,

ask how are things on the other side,

without a spirit guide

don’t even try.

Any visual ghostly activity around, that is

how they post their videos,

but don’t wait up. 

Don’t hold your breath. 

You don’t really have the right 

to know yet, what’s on the other side

of death.

There is no social media for the dead.

The way forward is not the Ouija Board,

the Tarot cards, the

automatic writing, 

the radio Buzz Box or the medium

who asks you to form a circle

and all hold hands,

the hollow lands of the dead

may not be listening

or maybe they just put you on hold.

But there are others who lurk in 

the shadows, near your loved ones.

You really don’t want 

to have a crossed line.

You might ache to speak to the dear departed

once more, for many months, years,

dreams veiled in tears of anguish, between

sleep and awake, longing, aching

to get back to that dream when you spoke

to them last, as if they had never gone,

and the afterburn of grief blazes on,

and you think you hear a strange distorted

voice on Skype, or WhatsApp

saying your name or interrupting

your conversation with incoherent

shouting, so you record it 

and play it back and it’s weird

and it’s scary, it’s talking

but it’s not their voice.

Your loved ones are still out there 

in some capacity, but what that may be

has to remain a secret; 

guarded and shrouded by angels;

sight unseen.

And that which is unseen is eternal.