Dear self

I’m ghost of yet to come

When all the things you’ve said and done

Return to haunt your every waking move

And convince you I was right

With the benefit of hindsight

I warn you must repent

Or die a thousand deaths

I’m a slice of Dante’s hell

This is real, I tell myself

You’ve had your second chance

It’s the final warning

I could take you with me now

I don’t have to warn you anyhow

I’ve paid for your mistakes

What I am, you will become

I enjoyed forbidden fruit

Stretched my youth until it broke

The ties that bound

My time misspent

I died, my parents cried

My end has come, my task: to make you mend your ways

Now you are my only hope

Lost again, you’re in control

Now I live again through you

Listen to me now, dear self

This talk of hell means nought

I tell myself, I’ll live again, in a better place

Laugh all you like. I know your type

Please heed this haunted smile, I beg

My future is in your own hands now

Paradise, now lost, awaits my own dear self