Determination defies the grave. Embalmed corpses, carefully positioned flat in caskets — like martyrs on display — don’t relinquish willpower. Thoughts turn over in a tomb, percolate with loneliness. Wishing beats rhythms on the hide-bound drumhead of death, mocking that futile lifespan peeled from stooped shoulders like a borrowed coat. Homeward spirits head to where their past was parked. Fueled by needs vast as night, their ceaseless energy extrudes backwards into the red-blooded world, crossing the Rubicon of a threshold, blinking mysteries through walls. The dispossessed cannot help but visit, called back into the thrall.
Telekinesis may signal presence. Car keys nestling the clothespins. Gold cufflinks showboating amid the cutlery. A missing necklace peek-a-booing from an antique sugarbowl. Or specters might create chilled condensation on a windowpane, inviting your warm finger to write back.
Visitants confuse the living who’ve grown accustomed to the quotidian, expecting the most precious candle to burn a long wick. But the decades discard themselves, breath bottoms out, lungs click shut, inner fire gutters down.
Aware of time out of time, ghosts realize that breathers will someday become weightless, too, coveting what still reflects the light — loved mirrors looking back.
BIO: Native New Yorker LindaAnn LoSchiavo, a Pushcart Prize, Rhysling Award, and Dwarf Stars nominee, is a member of SFPA, The British Fantasy Society, and The Dramatists Guild. Elgin Award winner “A Route Obscure and Lonely,” “Concupiscent Consumption,” and “Women Who Were Warned” are her latest poetry titles. Forthcoming: “Messengers of the Macabre” by Nat. 1, L.L.C. [Fall 2022] and a tombstone-heavy collection in hardcover by Beacon Books. She has been leading a poetry critique group for two years. Her Texas Guinan film won “Best Feature Documentary” at N.Y. Women’s Film Fest (Dec. 2021). ― ― links ― ― https://linktr.ee/LindaAnn.LoSchiavo Twitter: @Mae_Westside LindaAnn Literary on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHm1NZIlTZybLTFA44wwdfg