Unfortunate Ghost Poem by Daniel Ryan Cotler

I buried myself a thousand times more
each grave unmarked, each death just another closed door.
I died in the lies you breathed to my face,
in every twisted truth, every fall from grace.

I died in the gaslight, the blinding haze,
in the smears and whispers, in people's changed gaze.
Each friend lost like autumn leaves from the trees,
turned cold by the stories you spun with ease.

I died as you laughed at my fractured cries,
as you painted me mad in a cruel disguise.
In every betrayal, I wore the blame,
bearing your sins, stripped bare of my name.

I died in your hands, rough and unkind,
in every bruised moment that stained my mind.
I was splintered and shattered, left on the floor,
an echo, a shell, of who I was before.

I died in the moments you stole me bare,
left me homeless, robbed, with nothing to spare.
You filed false charges, a chain to bind,
to silence the truth you buried in my mind.

Through every betrayal, every cheating night,
through shadows you cast to block out my light,
through the hands you forced and the lies you told,
my spirit grew quiet, my bones grew cold.

I was a ghost in my life, hollow and spent,
walking through days where the colors went.
You stripped my world, my heart's soft trust,
ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

So here I stand, with my graveyard of grief,
burying each wound in search of relief.
Shovel in hand, laying dreams to decay,
for the lover who killed me, in his monstrous way.

#survivingfrankiezerella