What I Would Do

If I were a ghost
I would leave Salem
And drift across the world
From island to island
Continent to continent
Over oceans and mountains alike.

Content, I would look
At cherry trees exploding
And throwing their petals
Like snowflakes into the air.

I’d leave earth as it cooled
And faded to grey and sepia,
Travel to space and star gaze
At the constellations, up close.

Maybe I’d see a blue dwarf
That reached towards me
With spluttering, flaming arms.
And for a moment I would remember
A time when I knew who I was,
And a green world,
Alone among the silence.

Maybe I’d go back home
And see that old globe
And see the red sun
Flicker and fade into nothing
And I wouldn’t look away,
Not this time.

-Dana Hannibal