trickle-down (14/4/24)

there are people from my past
who turn up in my dreams
where they have no right to be,
how dare they
after all these years
to slip in unannounced
seeping in between
my semi-conscious layers
makes no sense at all
there are no excuses,
popping up
dropping in
uninvited guests
ghosts who just won’t rest,
is it all a test?
one of wills or
just unfinished business?
although is anything
ever really done
or trapped inside
this vast continuum
of eddies, swirls,
riffle and whirls,
a trickle-down effect
a motion born perpetual
a panoply of debris
dashed upon the rocks
some cling, some holdfast
for dear life,
some sink, some snag
dragged down in the undertow,
but every night
there they are
lingering, malingering,
out of place, out of time,
clogging up my mind
characters reciting
half-forgotten lines.

© 2024 robert greig