Elizabeth Joy Levinson
Ghost tour
You don’t need to let the ghosts in
because they are already with us,
weaving the space between us closed.
This holiday we gather in shame,
maybe survivor’s guilt or something else,
and we walk the cobblestone streets, night,
a cotton rat scurries from our approach,
an owl in flight won’t make a sound.
We ask the ghosts for more time.
A streetlight flickers in response
and some young wannabe tries her best.
Her beads clanging against each other,
plastic gems against her dark pinstripes,
her lacy corset. Clothing for summoning spirits.
If it works, it’s only because
there's so much loneliness in a city,
there's so much longing in a family,
and her voice is deep, it echoes.
I loop my cold, gloved fingers in my husband's,
but can't feel his warmth through the fabric,
only the pressure in his squeeze and then --
the release.
because they are already with us,
weaving the space between us closed.
This holiday we gather in shame,
maybe survivor’s guilt or something else,
and we walk the cobblestone streets, night,
a cotton rat scurries from our approach,
an owl in flight won’t make a sound.
We ask the ghosts for more time.
A streetlight flickers in response
and some young wannabe tries her best.
Her beads clanging against each other,
plastic gems against her dark pinstripes,
her lacy corset. Clothing for summoning spirits.
If it works, it’s only because
there's so much loneliness in a city,
there's so much longing in a family,
and her voice is deep, it echoes.
I loop my cold, gloved fingers in my husband's,
but can't feel his warmth through the fabric,
only the pressure in his squeeze and then --
the release.
Biography
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Elizabeth Joy Levinson (she/her/hers), a high school teacher in Chicago, has an MFA in Poetry from Pacific University and an MAT in Biology from Miami University. Her work has been published in Whale Road Review, FEED, SWWIM, Anti-heroin Chic, and others. She is the author of two chapbooks: As Wild Animals (Dancing Girl Press) and Running Aground (Finishing Line Press). Her first full length collection, Uncomfortable Ecologies, will be published in the fall of 2023 (Unsolicited Press). Find her on Instagram: @ejoylevinson, Twitter: @ejoylev, and online ejoylevinson.wordpress.com
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