Ghost Etiquette

Might it happen to have wings?
There will be no opening

Statements. We have to move now.
The existence of the file

Comes as no surprise. Connect
The blanks that are the tendons

Of haunted conversation,
The wind you can’t keep away.

It’s fine to snug the stitches
That have sutured up the page,

But this is not the message.
Sandblast the romantic rust

Off the soul apart from flesh.
Might it happen to have wings?

Where Have You Been?

How much of you, what parts,
Would have to go along
To your destination

For you to have been there?
The whole organism?
Just the organism?

Think about traveling
Children, your own childhood
Travels, if you traveled—

Your whole organism,
Such as you were, went there—
What do you remember?

Enough you can assert
To yourself you were there?
If you had a live feed

Like the Dublin-New York
Portal, were you only
The side where your feet were?

If you studied for years
About the place, if you
Learned language, dialect,

If you had many friends
Or family members
Who lived there, were you there?

If you were unaware
That someone had taken
Everything you’d written

In your life and left it
To be found in that place,
Could you say you’ve been there?