the words weren't mine

I saw the ghost of Kate in Mitre Square
and clapped my eyes      she didn’t disappear

I heard the ghost of Kate say nothing much
a short i and maybe bay repeated
after a moment’s pause before she turned
instantly seeing all the way through me

ibay what I asked but she wasn’t there
for questioning and racked her brains herself

what did she look like S was insistent
and I’d been sure she wouldn’t believe me
nor dead nor drunk nor struck with know-all Fate
the words weren’t mine so no change there I know
but these were a present not an echo
a rift reclaiming her from neither here