Don't Believe in Ghosts ...

ignore that moaning sound.
It’s nothing but the wind
howling down the chimney.
When the floorboards creak
it’s the house cooling down,
so they tell us … and the like.
Don’t let silly things spook you,
send shivers down your spine.
That tap-tapping on the ceiling –
no need to be afraid, merely
hailstones on the roof.

Thunder has a roar
far outweighs its bite;
a coalman on his rounds,
delivering to heaven
and that zigzag flash of light,
a pack of naughty sprites
with a fistful of fireworks.
Believe what you will
sweet sister mine, except
the sandman’s on his way,
so don’t you cry.

A few miles down the road
you’ll get the drift.
Grownups are often right,
but not as many times
as they’d have us children think.
Take God, for example,
never seen him in my life,
yet he exists, some insist,
so we’d best say our prayers
to be on the safe side.

Whatever our beliefs,
wise to keep an open mind.
Right now, all I care about
is drifting on the air,
up the stairwell.
The sound of pinewood
crackling in the hearth,
the smell of dad’s tobacco.
Things that really matter
I believe in. Cross my heart
and hope to die.