The ghosts I saw by the Menai Strait

[Ex Tempore XIV]

An idea that conjured itself whilst on an evening run that took me by the Menai Strait on 18 March 2012.

As I was passing by, I saw with unbelieving eye
the ghosts of children dancing in the field,
dancing under coming night, right by the Menai.
They glowed and flitted in the evening-blue
that lit the silent sky and this walker passing by,
who stood and witnessed these spectres
writhe and leap and turn from side to side,
from one end of the field to the other,
with nary a cry of laughter or anything besides.
I proposed to myself to approach these children,
phantoms of the night, of a time long gone by,
but worried they would fear my coming and
hie away back to the graves where they must lie.
So instead I decided to marvel at this thing
I now saw; and I smiled, for I had not turned
away in horror as men are wont to do when
they face sights like this, a sight of sprites
who no longer knew the real horrors of the world.
But at length I was espied and the children ceased
their frolicking and for a moment looked at me.
With great effort I tried a word, a salutation, a "hi",
but came up with nothing and simply gaped at them.
Though I could not see any light in their eyes
I could tell with little doubt they were not afraid of me,
and that they knew I, likewise, was not fearful of them.
All at once they turned and began to recede into the dark,
into the night, leaving as silently as the sky up high.
And there I was, left alone, left to remain and reflect on
what I had seen—was it real or but a vision in my mind?

M.M. — Martius MMXII