John Grey
It was a ghost all right.
Female, I think.
And she floated across
the bedroom carpet
and then right through the wall.
With trembling hand,
I reached for the cellphone
on the dresser
but she was gone
before I had a chance
to snap a picture.
Same as when I saw
the serpent-like monster
emerge briefly from the lake
then plunge back down
into the depths.
Or when I spied
the silhouette of a witch on a broom
riding across the full moon.
My cellphone’s always
close at hand
but I’m too slow and nervous
on the trigger.
There’s much weirdness
in this world
but its brief
is less than brief.
Friends advised me
to take pictures of the nothingness,
over and over,
until, by chance,
I capture something frightening.
So far, the highlights in my phone app
are photos of a curtain in mid-rustle,
a dragonfly
and a bratty kid poking his tongue.
So it worked.
I’ve three images of things
that terrify me.