The Knicknackery Issue Three - Monsters - 2015 | Page 21

Dear Ghost

Brett Elizabeth Jenkins

If I pray to you, will you show me how you died?

I want for us to be friends. I want to see

if you can fit inside an envelope and be mailed somewhere.

I want you to be the one who watches me

drinking wine on the floor of my bathroom. My blood

has quietly asked me to do this.

What do you know about blood?

How many clay bowls can be filled with one

man's blood? I don't mean it like that, ghost, it's just

I thought you might know, and it doesn't hurt

to ask, right? But why should I assume you know

all about blood? You're right, it's offensive to ask.

Tell me about candles

lit for you in churches, or about girls who park

their cars on railroad tracks. Tell me about empty

houses, and what clouds do when nobody's watching.

But what do you know about light?

Or the dark? What things are kept

in it? I need to know.

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