A poem by Charmin Foth

Ghosts of the Past (updated as it was spoken at the Knoxville Poetry Slam on 10-11-23

Viciously propelled back 

Time stands dead still

I feel attacked

Is this ghost of you from my past real?

Seeing you through the eyes of the girl I once was 

My heart shatters the ceiling 

Electric Shock

My brain is abuzz

My world rocked

I’m Physically reeling 

My Venom and butterflies

These feelings coincide

Mercury running through my veins

It all seems so ill-advised

A dreadful pull and a violent push

A rush

An obliterated crush

A Terror and Triumph

Yet a gut punch with an audible oomph

I try to contain

My spinning brain

How

After so many years

Why now

I was thankful you were in my rearview

Yet there you are, this is too bizarre 

Here stands the ghost of you 

Alongside the real me

Remembering the ghost of you

Hit by a tree

Pleading on bended knee

The good, the bad

The black and the blue

The danger of you

The stranger

I became to myself

My tortured mental health

All the heart-wrenching pain

The exhausted drain

All the tries

All the lies

Calling the law 

The last straw

The hard-fought healing

The struggle for growth

The inevitable rebirth

Into the person I am now

The ghost of me is long gone

On the horizon is a new brilliant dawn

A stronger woman fills the space

and Leaves behind the hate

Never traveling backwards

Always pressing forward

The struggle that nearly killed me built my character

My tale of woe becomes an encourager

Your ghost has been exorcized

And is finally gone

Step into the warm sunshine of a new dawn