Why do souls just seem to linger?
Why do souls just seem to linger when we die?
To leave our lifeless bodies just to gather at the ceiling
like smoke from something burning unattended.
Where looking down upon their emptied flesh,
bewildered by their sudden homelessness,
they seem unsure of where to go.
Some return to tell us how they saw us
gently sobbing as the doctors worked to save them.
Those that don’t come back just hide among the shadows
to haunt us in our quiet rooms.
Unmoored by death, a soul should find its way
to heaven quickly. And yet they linger.
Clinging to the earth as if they still obeyed
the law of gravity; as if they just can’t bear to leave.
What keeps them here to hover endlessly?
Not any wish of theirs, I think.
It is we who will not let them go.
About the Author: Donald Sellitti was a scientist/educator at a Federal medical school before turning to poetry following his retirement. His publications in medical journals such as Cancer Research and Oncology Letters have been succeeded by publications in a number of more amusingly titled journals, including The Alchemy Spoon, Door is A Jar, Gyroscope Review and Rat’s Ass Review, which nominated him for a Pushcart Prize.
Image Credit: Jean-Louis Forain “In the Hospital” Public domain image courtesy of Artvee
As It Ought To Be 