ghostgirl

Ghostgirl sings a short song

Of praise

For all the lives she’d lived

And for the ones

she never got the chance to know.

She doesn’t know

If other spectres notice.

Maybe

they don’t hear it right.

They mistake her for banshee, zombie, La LLorona,

Before her life was appropriated for a story,

before all the conquests killed her,

She lifted her left hand

& prayed

They’d get it.

She’d hope

The people wouldn’t eat each other

So carnivorously

But maybe they don’t see it.

They swallow her, become gaseous.

Maybe they’ll burp.

She’s doesn’t even know

What sound counts

As haunting.

(Heather Dora, 2017)