How can we endure it?

I am with you as you face the Ghost,

Feel the hairs going prickly on your neck

The spread of cold dread dissolving your faith

You swallow the pointless words unspoken,

“Spirit, show me no more.”

I am with you when you see the dark arm

Raise its fleshless finger toward the hovel

Pointing to the idle crutches fireside.

O Ebenezer, in that cursed moment,

before the Ghost of What is Yet to Come,

when your contrite heart, so newly hope-filled,

iced over in dread when you saw the cost

Learned the consequences of existence..

Saw that others paid the price for your sins.

The weight of your meager happiness cracked

The thinning lattice of narrow shoulders

Revealing a misery all your own

Now, bursting from your throat is the question:

“O Spirit. How can we endure it?”

Perhaps you can now create your own joy

You could dirty your hands with messy bonds

Lighten your conscience and coffers alike.

Reduce yourself to share humanity

you might find something lasting, forgiving.

A great happiness could be built on such,

Perhaps one strong enough to protect you.

Do the Ghosts only come once a lifetime?

Can redemption be earned in one evening?

Make sure you weave your bedclothes with progress.

Banish the shadows with good deeds piled high.

Hope you have changed enough that you ward off

Any future visits from the Spirit.

Who among us can stand before the Wraith,

Dark arm raised, terrible finger pointing

To a dread stele engraved with your name?

All progress and good deeds returned to dust.

You could hold up your flimsy shield of joy,

Turn your eyes from the impending doom;

You must beg aloud to be shown no more

For you will be no better prepared to

Endure.

-Sarah Rossey