One of the new ones

A Phantom

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Do I really exist within these walls,

Or am I just a dying hope that lurks these halls?

Is this what I have become?

A memory,

A shadow,

An allegory,

Have I become hollow?

No, I am none of these things,

I am a phantom.

A memory's old self is still remembered,

Even if that spark is just the shard of one word,

Memories are always looking for ways to come back,

For they now posess everything that they previously lacked,

A shadow stands hand in hand with the good it once was,

They just barely exist for one horrid cause,

They feed off the souls of memories faded,

Until they themselves become hopelessly jaded,

Allegories rebel against what they once were,

They're the same on the outside,

while the inside's not sure,

They represent what they could never be,

While their dead hearts hold the only key,

Those now hollow never really knew,

They never tried hard enough to think things through,

Pity them,

they were never able to finish their quest,

For how far can you go with an empty chest?

Phantoms' former selves have long since died,

No one will ever know how hard they cried,

Taken from them was the ability to stand,

And all they were left with was two broken hands,

Do any of us really exist within these walls,

Or are we all just dying hopes that lurk these halls?

Is this really all that we have become?

You, a memory,

You, a shadow,

You, an allegory,

Are you now hollow?

Or are there more like me?

I am a phantom,

How much worse could I be?