My first year in Japan
I saw no ghosts
Just the rusted skeletons
Of a broken bubble
I heeded the call of blood
Ran to Europa in summer
Was exiled on my return
To a haunted mansion
In the screaming jungle
Praying at the foot
Of a templed jade mountain
Gazing out at the sea
My second year I met a ghost
Recognized his uniform
From ‘BANZAI!’ charges
In Sgt Rock comics books
It took me a year
To understand his words
The wife and child left in Kobe
The dysentery that killed him
Other foreigners came
To my place in the jungle
But couldn’t see the phantom
Walked drunk through him
My third year in Japan
Other ghosts arrived
The faceless woman
Eye for anus man
They held no fear for me
I drank sake with them
Told them of wendigo
And the old hag of Newfoundland
At my contract end they wept
As I returned to Canada
I hoped the next English teacher
Would love them as much
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