I’ve lived many places
in the same location—how
many deaths are contained
in those serial lives? And what
of the try-outs, the short
visits that only caused
chaos from beginning to end?
Not all remain empty–
I can still hear them rattling
the corners of memories
born in dreams. If
I didn’t fit into every
context I passed through,
I still left parts behind—
Words I wrote that make no
sense now that I’m no longer
there—echoes that still
linger around the edges
of every song I sing. Perhaps
they live in the parts
I can’t quite recall—
Or in all those apartments
that populate my dream
world, the ones I return
to again and again, traversing
dark streets—it is always
night—eerily quiet
with noirish cinema light.
Every one contains stairs
and phantom rooms, windows
in hallways and former
inhabitants—not quite ghosts–
but there, there, as much
as I, in what is called real
life, keep moving on.
This may have some relation to today’s NaPoWriMo prompt of the road not taken. Maybe.
K. 
The noirish streets and phantom rooms–it’s funny, sometimes I imagine the past that way. I suppose within our minds, there are many roads and rooms.
Perfect song, too.
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Thanks Merril. It’s a way of inhabiting the past I suppose–the dreams are always in the past tense even when they seem to be happening in the present. Time…
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Yes, it is a strange thing.
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A good transfer of your moving state of mind. I could feel this:
“Words I wrote that make no
sense now that I’m no longer
there”
And a great reminder of this film. Ms. Blanchett wins.
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Thanks Manja. I wonder if we ever really know where we are…
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Maybe those ghosts exist because their parallel and not serial. We do carry them with us.
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That’s a good point Ken. There’s not much that really gets discarded in the end.
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It would explain a lot. I love your musical choice and video. Nobody sings it like Zimmy.
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Thanks Jade. Mobile is a great word, with a lot of associations, and the song itself is a good reflection of its ambiguity. I do like Cat Power’s version too.
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You’re welcome.
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p.s. I just realized this is the opening clip for a movie about him, “I’m Not There,” which I haven’t seen.
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I haven’t seen it either, but it’s on my list.
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I identify with your words so strongly here, especially that last stanza. Sometimes I am haunted by the places I’ve lived, other times I enjoy journeying back to them in my mind. But each place lingers in some form or other.
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It does. They both linger and mingle. And haunted is just the right word. (K)
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This is wonderful. Like you I have lived in many places. Many of them still linger in noir shadows f memory. The phantom rooms haunt me sometimes too. My current place is light and bright and my furniture is mostly white or dove grey. I needed to let the real world get really bright for a while but the ghosts do still return at night
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Thanks Suzanne. One thing I know after all these moves: I need light coming in the windows. But at night, the shadows will have their way.
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I’ve lived in the same place for 10 years now but grew up moving with my family sometimes twice a year, so I have a very rich dream catalog of abandoned rooms. This was very evocative for me, and made me think of all those multiverse Me’s that stayed put a little longer and went a different way. None of us are satisfied, I’m sure.
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Thanks Sun. I think that’s probably true. We are human after all.
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Wonderful! Love that last stanza – so insightful.
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Thanks Charlotte. We carry so much with us, always.
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