A spirit coiled (the mocking ghost)

[[ this one began with something real -- Diplacusis dysharmonica, Diplacusis echoica -- and turned into a spirit walking at night in my peripheral hearing and mocking me, and this became a song to be sung with chants and drums and a chorus of mocking spirits]]

[the predicament of the soul]
A spirit coiled
in the curl
of my ear

talks to me
like a lurker
in the other room

I cannot tell
above the wind
that whistles by

Is this the me
who's talking? Whose
tongue is this?

My mind or spi
rit coiled within
my inner ear?

Whose tongue is curled
in my left ear?
Come out now!

[one explanation of the soul's predicament]
They say
the mocking ghost
will walk your words
back home.

They say
the mocking ghost
will turn your tale
around.

They say
the mocking ghost
will live in your
left ear.

[chant of the mocking ghost in insect voices]
They say
the mocking ghost
They say
the mocking ghost
They say
the mocking ghost

[wonderment from within]
My mind
or flight of birds?

My mind
or branches aching?

My mind
or not my mind?

[another explanation of the soul's predicament]

They say 

the mocking ghost
will show
another you.

They say
the mocking ghost
will bend the light
round you.

They say
the mocking ghost
will live in your
left ear.

[chant of the mocking ghost in insect voices]
They say
the mocking ghost
They say
the mocking ghost
They say
the mocking ghost