Photo by Jesse Bowser on Unsplash
The Art of Ghosting
It requires a deft feel of
space, atmosphere,
my place within it.
Shrinking is the easy part;
few notice my contortions
to accommodate.
Conversations flow in torrents;
my awkward trickle dries,
I silently observe.
By the time anyone pauses
to notice my absence,
I’m long gone.
Disappearing one’s self
from physical social functions
call for skill and patience.
Social media ghosting only requires
resolve to never logon again;
no one looks for you there.
Voiding verbal social contracts
with friends and loved ones
can be a bit trickier.
But total mastery of this art
necessitates majestic dexterity
and stately self-loathing.
It is mastered only when
you never leave your bed
no longer seeking connection,
and no one ever again seeks
comfort within your touch.
Ghosting is easy with practice,
but living with the aftermath,
not so much.
It’s doubtful you even noticed
that I left this poem.
***
Inspired by dVerse Poetics: Your Majesty, hosted by Gospel Isosceles. Other poets contributed to the prompt here.
We were supposed to implement some type of majestic vibe into this prompt, but as you can see, I predictably went the other way with it.
Hephaestus’ Waste & Cosmic Rubble 
Haha! I literally just penned an article a few days ago about people who ghost and how we should let them go when they do so. I love this bit:
“It is mastered only when
you never leave your bed
no longer seeking connection,
and no one ever again seeks
comfort within your touch.
Ghosting is easy with practice,
but living with the aftermath,
not so much.
It’s doubtful you even noticed
that I left this poem.”
Very creative, Barry.
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Thanks Tre. Funny thing about ghosting, I’ve spent my childhood making myself smaller for others and being seen but not heard… I’ve been ghosting long before we acknowledged it as a Thing.
Sadly, for me, ghosting is like teaching a fish to swim.
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I hear you.
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This is excellent, Barry.
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Thank you, Shawna. I was going to visit your site, but I didn’t see one listed for you.
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You are such a rebel but with good cause! This verse especially resonated for me:
But total mastery of this art necessitates majestic dexterity and stately self-loathing.
– I used to not capitalize my I’s for the reasons in your poem. Obviously, I’ve gone to therapy since then…this was fantastic!
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Ghosting..Interesting term in the sense you are using it, which I am not familiar with…. It is sort of going unnoticed flying under the radar. There must be advantages to this.Forget the self loathing…should be congratulating yourself on managing to avoid interaction and beating the system which results in a lot stress communicating with disingenuous inauthentic cretins leading to ill health and hair loss(tearing your hair out by the roots in frustration:)..
Trying to think of the aftermath down side of the ghosting thing..possibly never leaving the bed could result in a few problems If you are going to do this ghosting thing you should live in a warm climate on the beach…..much more amenable to ghosting…seagulls and fish make excellent companions.
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This is the second time you’ve suggested my living on a warm beach… hmmm… perhaps I should give this a bit more thought? 😉
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