Owen Hughes: Vaccination

After the shots
Not a fever
No side effect
Except this pause

Or call it fear
Of going back
To the old life
The world of flesh

I am thinking
This is how ghosts
Floating edgewise
Near visible

And when given
Another chance
To be with us
Would turn it down

Would turn away
From stink and filth
And all the mess
Of being real

Would choose to stay
Thin and empty
Among the dreams
To which they're bound

Copyright 2021 Owen Hughes

Owen Hughes grew up in the Yukon Territory and Ontario, Canada, before attending Dartmouth College, where he studied English literature. He is an attorney and the author of a collection of poems The Gravedigger’s Art.