I Wish I Were a Ghost

I wish I were a ghost for a while.  If I were, I wouldn’t bother with the clanking chains bit.  I’d figure that I had carried enough baggage around during my regular life.  Instead, I would just relax and enjoy my newfound lightness of being.

I wouldn’t waste any time moaning or groaning either, or hovering above people’s beds, scaring them half to death.  If I were a ghost, I’d float to the top of a tree, probably a red maple, and I’d linger there as the leaves turned to glory and some fluttered to the ground.  I’d flutter down too and become one of them, swirling and twirling and skittering along the sidewalk.

I would visit some folks, but not the ones who had caused me misery and heartache when I was alive.  I’d be glad that I never had to see them again.  I would visit the ones who would welcome my company, the ones who loved me, or lonely ones who felt forgotten or invisible to the world.  I’d stay with them while they sat in their kitchens drinking coffee in the early morning.  Time would mean nothing to me and I’d visit lots of them.  When they went to bed that night, they’d be a little bit cheered, without knowing why.

If I were a ghost, I’d go places.  Boy, would I go places.  I’d drift in and over and through the most beautiful places on Earth and I’d become a part of them.  When people saw these places, they’d be seeing me, and they’d tell people about it.  ”I’ve been there before but this time it was really something,” they’d say.

If I ever started to feel dead inside I would fly, lightning fast, straight up the vertical planes of the tallest skyscrapers in the biggest cities.  I’d absorb all the glittering scenes and chaotic sounds below and I’d be filled again with the energy of the living.

Truthfully, I guess I would haunt some places, mostly libraries and museums, but only at night when there’d be nobody to scare.  I’d look for other ghosts among my favorite books and art, maybe even pass through some of them, but I’d be quiet.

If I were a ghost, I wouldn’t bother anybody or anything, I’d just be.

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This piece is a response to the Weekly Writing Challenge from WordPress.  The challenge this week is to write a post using the prompt “I wish I were…” After writing this one, I must say that the spirit of the subjunctive mood haunts me still.  :)

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