GHOSTS AND MEMORIES (December contest)

The better half has gone to bed
yet here I sit in the near dark
thinking of all of loved ones dead.
All my thoughts are sad and stark.

I think of all my close kin gone
leaving me being the "old man".
All their advices I depended on
gone like air through an ancient fan.

Plus all of the friends I had
who now sleep beneath the grass.
You'd think by now I'd not be sad
so much time has come to pass.

I think of team mates in high school
Who grew up and then moved on.
Perhaps I am some kind of fool
to think living folk can still be gone.

Outside the sky is clear and cold.
The moon is full and stars are bright.
Rehashed memories grow like mold
on this the eve of Christmas night.

Memories...ghosts, they are the same.
A visit from either one now past
can leave my mood both dark and lame.
Like a visit from ghosts of Christmas past.....