John-Ward Leighton

GHOSTS

They close Yankee stadium today
and the ghosts of Ruth, Gehrig,
DiMaggio and Mantle
will fly away.
There will be no there,
there for them to stay.
It appears that 1.5 billion dollars
is not enough to buy our memories.
All these stadiums
now named for corporate criminals
will not house our ghosts.
It is up to the story teller
to keep the narrative alive
or all those friendly ghosts
will have to finally die.
What value is there in our memories?
Is it perhaps our promise to the dead?
That we allow the ghosts
to populate our imaginations
and so in some way cheat death
and in our minds we become the hosts
for all those wonderful childhood
ghosts.

THE HEART HAS ITS OWN MEMORY: In honor of the spirit of the people murdered in the downtown Eastside. Many were women and many were native aboriginal women. Many of these cases remain unsolved, all my relations. Erected July 29, 1997: Photo ©Copyright 2008 by John-Ward Leighton