Artwork © bob McNeil
Specter
Form without substance
Shadow without structure
Soul without body
You wander the familiar places
Searching for familiar faces yet all you find are strangers.
Song without voice
Sight without vision
Touch without contact
You stretch out a numb hand to feel
and all you get in return is the chill of a cold shoulder
Light without warmth
Space without time
Movement without purpose
You have the feeling that something’s missing
yet you can’t put a name to it.
Just a phantom ache all over.
Past without present
Present without future
Memory without meaning
What tender hell waits in your memory
So soft and supple like a lover’s bosom
It looks like the perfect place to rest your head
and sleep awhile
Maybe forever.
Richard Bell lives in Greenville, North Carolina. He spends half his nights and most of his days working to give people more time on this earth through dialysis. What little time he has to himself, he spends with his wife and daughter or drinking scotch and writing poetry, essays, or whatever satisfies the itch. His work has appeared in Ariel Chart, The Reedy Branch Review, and Wildsound Writing Festival.
Bob McNeil is a writer, editor, cartoonist, and spoken word artist. Flexible Press published his book composed of essays, illustrations, poems, and stories titled Compositions on Compassion and Other Emotions. Proceeds from this work fund the National Alliance to End Homelessness.