Two Hungry Ghosts - Dustin Vado

Two hungry ghosts float down Shattuck
    Full of food and noise
      Yet still starving
        Skinny
            Bloated

            They are free of the reins of love
                And drift past a curb where a man is selling jewelry
                    To anyone vain enough to want copper cookware
                    And burn butter on pennies

                            The ghosts pay no regard
                        And hover on
                    In search of a plain wall
                To watch their backs

            “Here - do this”
        One ghost offers a solution to the other,
    Contrary to the one offered a day before

Whiter than smoke, a ladder that promises
    Nothing except the stench of wandering tomorrow
        And another day of feet reaching for the ground

Hex waves of flickering matches

And stumbling blackouts

Wash past blindly

Nothing can outweigh why
    When clawing for blood stained cement,
The way that orange lights burn
    Wonder to the fingers
And brilliance out of minds
    Smelling of burning hair and tobacco

The arc breaking sodium vapor

Disguises the need for sleep 

Exposing streets dense with buoyant company

“What a life.”

A ghost pushes a sigh through his exposed ribs

Indeed

One ghost looks half dead
    The other with a finger fresh out of the socket
        Both melting
            Into the wall behind them
                And still
            Nothing outweighs why

They make no sound except 

Music that didn’t exist last year,

Another moment closer to the clouds

Stranded with lost balloons