Ghosts

The hospital had one,

except it was the sort of ghost

that only followed my shadow

everywhere my feet fled.

to hotel at the beach, warmly lit--

and an Italian nursing home.

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My mother's room had a different ghost,

one that clung to the chambers of my heart,

after creeping in through my nose and eyes.

It plagued my sight after I left the room,

filling it with mist, making my chest throb.

__________________

Twenty ghosts haunted the signatures

in her yearbook,

each curve connecting each letter

was a ley line into her world,

a world I wondered if I knew.