Windowed as I am, Cousin! How can you not See me?

Oh, but did I not Drape curtains across A moment ago, The ones between Which I stare out At you now?

Yes, I’m afraid that Poltergeists inhabit this home And myself enclosed, Committing me to such strange actions As when I ask you now, angrily,

Windowed as I am, Cousin! How can you not Hear me? How many times have I Called out to you, Beckoning to where I stand Unaccompanied….

Oh, but did I not Close the window To my own calls But a moment ago—

Hm…. Do I repeat myself?

I fear that I do not stand Here entirely alone For this self has long been Haunted by residents human and besides, By films and books, Religions, rallies, Traumas and teachings, By you and even by me, The ghosts of our wills Drawn out And tangled in the tapestries Of memories both potent And forgotten;

But windowed as I am, Cousin! How can you not Feel me? How could you abandon Me to such unholy residence While I stretch my fingers out To reach for you….

Oh, but I now recall That the window was shut And my palms crushed beneath. Am I the one Who commits himself To such strange action?

...Or was it the influence Of the portraits whose Eyes shift unseen behind me? Or was it the tapestries? The teachings? The rituals? The myths? The howlings from the attic Where I hide things both potent And forgotten…? —No!

I must get out.

Windowed as I am, Do you not hear me rap against the glass?

Oh, but I now recall my Broken hands, crushed beneath—

I must get out.

Windowed as I am, Cousin! Do you not hear the thump Of my forehead against the glass?

Oh, but I now recall The drapes muffling each blow—

I must get out—

Oh! Oh! Oh! Phantoms of this home, Enchanters of body and mind, I call out to you and beseech! Pitch this vessel now Toward where it has never dared— Step out! Step forth from portraits Chalked with age And attics locked with time; Be full-throated in your howls and clamor, Till they they shiver the foundations On which we vex, Collapsing this whole edifice Toward the outside Until we stand exposed—yes!

And I remember That then the drapes fell, As ghouls ran through the halls, And the glass cracked, As devils rose from catacombs, And at last, when all was splintered, And I, curled in the ruin of my home, As wails and forms Escaped to the air, The breeze came in, and Cousin, you stepped forth, Through ruins, To greet me.