Prose Header


I’m All, “And the Night Visitor!”

by Don Webb

Last night at the witching hour
I was wandering sleeplessly,
Looking for wholesome flour
To make anti-insomnia tea.

At my kitchen window
A specter raised its head.
Startled, I said, “Hello,
O ghost. How is it that you’re dead?

“And what’s your name, by the bye?
Would you like to come in for tea?”
A mournful shrug was the reply.
I heard not, though I could see.

The ghost went his way, anonymous,
And I reflected over my tea
That such is the fate of the posthumous.
Would a name do more for me?


Copyright © 2009 by Don Webb

to Challenge 348...

Thanks to Arnold Hollander for the idea of the nameless ghost, in issue 347. Apologies to Gian Carlo Menotti for the atrocious pun on the title of his opera, with which this poem has little or nothing to do.

Home Page