The Ghost In Black Poem by Chip Schaller

Broken hopes and shattered dreams
Despair begins it's cruel attack
Faceless fears and voiceless screams
Hosted by the ghost in black

Part One - The Man

Abandoned at birth to a foster cage
Rejection fear, his only friend
A living abortion on a lonely stage
Exiled to a cell in a life without end

Raised and abused in brutal care
Childhood cries all laughed aside
Hijacked by hurt, no wing or prayer
Concealed his pain from his expectant bride

Married their mistake, divorced his ambitions
With a flask he hated but never laid down
A fish stuck in a bowl of alcoholic perdition
Escape and suffocate or stop swimming and drown

He built a wall and decomposed
All or nothing thoughts left no way out
Depression welcomed, unopposed
Bones picked clean by vultures of doubt

He threw desire to change away
Sped the erosion, his collapse
Routine boredom's fast decay
Made yesterday's traps today's relapse

Their last five years were wasted plight
This straw on his back, these latest fears
A final drink to purge the sight
Of hurt and sadness in her tears

His wife and child were late fall grass
Their little girl, the apple of his red eye
On a ship in a bottle with a half empty glass
He'd never get a chance to say goodbye

Part Two - The Woman

Three years now since they found their life
Face down dead in their living room
His mournful eyes revealed his strife
His toxic blood had sealed his doom

No way to support them or means to bother
A stack of bills, unable to pay
Moved back in with her drunken father
Crying on her bed each day

Her white picket fence passed away
Where were her dreams and plans?
All collapsing on that day
They died beside her only man

The doctor's pills brought her relief
Numbed the hurt and soothed the pain
She took them to erase the grief
Nothing to lose, nothing to gain

Tortured with her only child
hiding, crying, trembling with fear
Her tragic loss unreconciled
Too much pain to form a tear

With a bath tub of warmth and pharmacy friends
A way to escape, to turn a blind eye
No way she could ever make amends
She'd never get a chance to say goodbye

Part Three - The Girl

Ten years had passed since mama's death
Thirteen since her father's wake
She whispered black tar under her breath
Hid tracks of a life she chose to fake

She got her wings, a sweet escape
A prison break from an inherent cell
A welcome diversion, a way to undrape
To silence the endless tolling bell

Anguish and anger's burning voices
Guilt trips to nowhere on shoulders of shame
On this path she had no choices
Saddled with sorrow, ridden by blame

So many partners, no way to know
Who the father was, no way to be sure
Her baby boy still starting to grow
Was born dependent on more than just her

Fought the thoughts of her newborn's pain
She wanted to live and begged to die
A fatal dose of lost love in her vein
She'd never get a chance to say goodbye

Epilogue - The Baby

In the foster home, the baby was crying
Alone but bundled with detached care
Invisible to sight but eagerly smiling
The ghost in black was waiting there

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