The Invisible Ghost (In Death, as in Life), by J.G. Simiński

Grandfather's Clock, by DeScott Evans (USA) 1881

​The Invisible Ghost (In Death, as in Life)

She often / rests against the / old / grandfather clock / at the foot of the / worn / wooden stairs / in the now / slumbering hallway / a clock / that was actually / coincidentally / made by her / grandmother / A woman who discovered / quite by accident / the venerable craft of clockmaking / Her hands were treasures / creating the most exquisite time pieces / from pediment to plinth /  
 
Many times / from when the sun rose until dusk / she would lean on her grandmother’s / old / grandfather clock / feeling the tick tock of the pendulum / back and forth / back and forth / swaying slowly / rhythmically / like a far-off lullaby / as if it was / the heartbeat / of her grandmother’s /once /warm bosom  
 
Every other day / when the tours of the old house began / and / people would come from the / many / rounded corners of the world / she would prop herself up against her grandmother’s  / grandfather clock / waiting eagerly / to tell the visitors the / amazing tale / the history of / her grandmother’s / exquisite / grandfather clock / sometimes even mimicking / her /grandmother’s voice
 
But no one / saw her / nor / heard her / even those / that called themselves / enlightened / until / utterly exasperated and bereft / she fell dead asleep / against her grandmother’s / beautiful / grandfather clock / knowing time would tick / forward / into another / restrainedly / hopeful / day

J.G. Simiński 
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J.G. Simiński was a finalist for the Gival Press Oscar Wilde Poetry Award and as one of 15 writers for the 2025 PEN America Emerging Voices Workshop, and was a 2024 Poetry Fellowship recipient of the Martha's Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing, recipient of a 2025 T.S. Eliot Summer School, scholarship, Merton College, Oxford. Simiński’s poetry has appeared widely in many journals.  Simiński's essay was shortlisted by The Fountain Magazine. Story Shares selected Simiński as the Gay Pride Author of 2024 for an LGBTQ story.  Simiński studied Shakespeare and the Classics at Balliol College, Oxford through a special program associated with Juilliard and U.C.L.A.
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