Blog No. 337 - Becoming a Ghost Part 2 - Now is the time - 23 October 2025

 Becoming A Ghost (2) – Now Is The Time 

- 7 October 2027 -

Our ghost transformation did not happen immediately,

Not as soon as the doctors told us the news;

Not as soon as the doctors told us Margaret would be dead by Christmas 2020.

Perhaps our friends were still in shock at first.

We were certainly in shock.

Perhaps there is a more ordinary explanation.

Perhaps they felt no need to immediately turn us into Cancer Ghosts.

Margaret would become a real ghost soon enough.

You know the type of ghost I mean.

The unable to breathe,

Unable to eat,

Unable to move

Dead woman, type of ghost.

If our friends suffered from shock,

The shock soon dissolved.

When they came out of shock,

Maybe they got a surprise.

It was late January 2021.

Yet the dead woman still breathed.

It was late January 2021,

Yet the dead woman still moved,

Surely she could not last too much longer?

She had just endured last gasp chemotherapy

Just gone through last gasp radiotherapy.

She was being transformed before their eyes.

Death had her firmly in hand.

Given Margaret would soon be a real ghost,

The next step was so easy.

It could not really hurt her, could it?

It could not really hurt the husband either.

If they were both turned into Cancer Ghosts,

Neither of them would really notice.

So we both became Cancer Ghosts.

But of course, we did notice.

We noticed when all the visits stopped.

We noticed when the phone calls stopped.

How could we not notice?

When our Pretend Friends fled our presence,

There was no mercy.

There was no mercy for the not yet quite dead woman.

There was no mercy for the husband of the not yet quite dead woman.

There was no mercy for the man who felt every pain shuddering through her.

There was no mercy for the man who desperately wanted the impossible swap.

“Give me the cancer.”

“Take it away from her.”

“I want it.”

“Please.”

There was no mercy in their hearts then.

Two years after Margaret died,

There is still no mercy.

Margaret is now very much a real ghost,

While I remain a Cancer Ghost.

I hope real ghosts cannot cry,

They have no eyes,

So how can they cry?

Cancer Ghosts are still alive and they do have eyes.

Cancer Ghosts weep tears made of molten lead.