Meg Matthias: My Favorite Ghosts

Photo: Joanna C. Valente

my favorite ghosts

winner

my roommate and i do homework in bed
& sometimes a shoe falls in the closet

sometimes i am on my back after kissing
feeling faint, thelma and louise’s baby blue
convertible cruising through wire in chest
me un-caught in great yonic canyon arms—
they stay suspended but i can’t help myself

i fall in socks protect my feet from watery fear,
worn overnight

                                              sometimes my hands & feet go numb &

                                     please meet my fear of toxic shock

                                                               after kissing

            ship my godly punishment in      measured units of panic  

                                                                  (ETA three to six business days)

                         ladybeetles haunt the donor engraving nailed to our wall

                                                he paid for this room & now

            we adore him

in pitch black construction paper through rearview, temperature
set to spike to drop to crawlingclick up pockmarked arms

we are great at stacking shoes; i fall in love easily
my roommate and i look at each other to say, otherworldly

runner-up

me in sleep
eye mask two cut-out
crisp sheet holes
colored-in void.

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Meg Matthias is a multi-genre writer and student whose work has been published in Rookie, Indiana Review, and more. When not in class, she is writing about girlhood, anxiety, and the body. She is an only child, but asks that you not hold it against her.