The Ghost of a Cockroach

Is whatever word or phrase triggers
Someone to imagine a cockroach,
Which is to say, dredge old memories,

In an instant, for some cockroaches,
And present an amalgamation
Of memories with that word or phrase,

And now you’ve got ghosts of cockroaches
Infesting your skull, haunting your brain—
Unless you’ve had no experience

Of living cockroaches or those words
That have attached them to their ghosts, and
You have other ghosts to contend with.