Ghost Story
Erick Mertz

I.

the last of
our unborrowed affect,

man will dig out from his soil
like a winter artifact

nothing simple description will fail:
bulbous, white


II.

display of untarnished silver
near the entry, breaching some climax

recall she was different in other buildings
you, like some other

ghost story, a note traced in pencil
(words where none had been before)


III.

through the window,
clear, the sounds of footsteps

lending no adjective (there remain
only lines of dialog,

distant, unattached:
retreat, deeper into myth making

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