they said to
a Frightened man
you are as white
as a ghost
he said nothing
but thought
about the paradigm that after existing
in the skin
he was born to
for an entire lifetime
the Fear of death
would render him as white as the ghost
they thought he would become
after dying
thus negating at last
all else he was and had been
in this notion of the afterlife
fear and death bleach all
and the goal of total assimilation
is thus achieved
but the frightened man
did not say any of this
instead silently resolved that
when at last his term was ended
if he could come back
he would come back
the wraith he would become
would haunt all of this
and his ghost
would be dark