(This poem was inspired by a favorite passage in a short story by one of my favorite authors, the amazing Steven Millhauser: “You pass through a world so thick with phantoms that there is barely enough room for anything else.”—Steven Millhauser)
I want my ghosts
immediate. There should be
no creaking floors,
no strange footstep
falling. There should only be
you in the darkened room,
doors open wide
to let the night seep
in and tell you something
you never thought you’d know.