i
Nikky Smonnicks is a ghost without a host
No one died to make him
Some say not so, they say he lived and he was a cabin boy from the Barbary Coast
But that turned to be a corsair lie told to stake him
To the mirthless earth of self made men
So say they who long to be the flesh Nikky had forsaken
ii
Any ghost can be a special spirit
Human beings seldom get near it
Ghosts are burned clean at life’s end
The quick must unshackle from liens and wills and dishonest trusts before they are completely all in given
iii
Nikky Smonnicks it seems never lived nor was a stillborn child fitted with a shell common in both heaven and hell
He began as a ghost completing a journey never begun
How can this be, someone like he, a song finished yet neither written nor sung?
It matters not in the end even non-events can be considered done
iii
So welcome to the afterlife without a before, the angels and demons hope you are fun
You are an unlikely hair on the head of time
A Zombie in reverse
A long running show never rehearsed
And the reason why The Book of the Dead
is off by one
The Amoral: One needn’t live to be successfully dead
Saragun Springs 
Leila
This is a wonderful depiction of a kind of limbo or purgatory which baffles and terrifies even as it warns and instructs.
I’m using the word “wonderful” here in its original, not its modern, sense.
And I’m using the word “instruct” in the amoral, non-ideological sense of the term.
Nikky Smonnicks is a strange, resonant name befitting the condition of this spirit or non-spirit.
One of the great mysteries of this poem is THE VOICE OF THE CHANTING SPEAKER.
One wonders who the speaker is and how she/he/they/”it” can possibly know all this. If there were a clear-cut answer to this question, this would be a lesser poem than it is.
The irregular line lengths in this are also brilliant!
Wondering if you want to answer where the name comes from?
Dale
PS, “Ghosts are burned clean at life’s end” – great line!
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Thank you Dale
Sometimes I rather just prefer the sinsong of something in my head. But I do follow strict numbers in sonnets and like.
Nikky comes from a thing in my musical past “Nixxy Smonnix” a possible band name, never used. But it pops back into my mind now and again, like the idea of someone being born a ghost.
Thanks as always
Leila
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“No one died to make him” but Lawd how he lives in an afterworld that had to it no before. Spirited verse par excellence – & with a fine amoral to it. The “mirthless earth of self made men” – one of several superb lines. Is there I wonder a Saragun Springs Book of the Dead?
Geraint
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Hi Geraint
There’s nothing more pleasing for a writer than winning the respect of a writer she respects.
Thank you so much.
I was all for Nixxy Smonnix myself. It was my suggestion for another group, can’t recall the name they picked, which, I guess tells you something!
Leila
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And Nixxy Smonnix is a GREAT name for a band.
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