Ghosts

Yesterday I encountered a ghost.
I was walking home after a conversation with someone whom I have known for many years. Suddenly they were swirling around me.
The memories.
The old, almost forgotten feelings.
The words long since spoken.
There again.
Real.
Alive.
Swirling around me.
Pulling up thoughts and feelings I long ago did my best to bury and forget.
I tried to bat them away.
I didn’t want them anymore.
I didn’t need them anymore.
But my hand merely moved through the air in front of my face like nothing was there.
The ghosts remained.

Eventually it or they disappeared.
Evaporating in the warmth of the sun or pushed away by the spring breeze.
Or moving back into the shadows as another person approached.
I don’t know.
But they were there.
Are there.
I know it.

Yesterday as I was walking home I encountered a ghost.