I Could Write of Ghosts as Dead Things

Could say “My house stopped being haunted
after my father died.” Could write of hallways,
of echoes, then nothing. Light & shadows.

But consider also that I am a ghost, defined by all the places I’ve left: My family
home, Ohio and its warm couches, Minnesota and its screaming cold
(eventually), every relationship except the one I wanted.

Once, I went ghost hunting with my ex in Key West,
toured abandoned business floors, the elevators of La Concha,
and the Artist House. For a spell, we lingered outside an unremarkable home

and were told of Count Von Cosel, a german physician who, in 1933,
dug up the corpse of a former patient, a woman our age.
Gave her glass eyes and wax skin, bones bound with piano wire,

hair of hers from when she lived. He kept her in the bed,
danced with her body in the halls, and every night, played piano
just loud enough for both of them to hear. Not a ghost, but almost.

At the end of the night, everyone recited the phrase
to keep the ghosts from following them home, but us.
“Ghosts” she told me, “are just friends we get for free.”

We left something there. Sometimes, I think it was me.
Sometimes, I think to be me is to be full of empty places.
To fill a table with everyone who once loved me, then stopped.

An endless friend your arms go through. The only thing that stays
once the door is closed. Sometimes, I think it’s the living that haunts the dead
and that sometimes, the dead become ghosts because we made them

and all they can remember now is how to just be there, in the other room,
trying to make something they could no longer touch
move.

Still,
not even the light
(almost nothing)

is free.
We hunted for ghosts
to return

with.
Came home
wanting—

leaving
something—
even less.

Keaghan O'Brien is an emerging Midwest poet. His works are heavily inspired by his roots in live music performance and the slam poetry community. Originally from Dayton, Ohio, he received his Bachelor's Degree in Creative Writing (Poetry) from Bowling Green State University in 2020. He is currently living in Minneapolis, Minnesota.