a ghost garden last year’s still blooms
on the patio an undying marigold
lanky rosemary rose-scented
geranium all having survived this
unsown year
and a shadow moves
among those leaves fleet in rising sun
I turn to it and it has gone
pancakes cool on my plate I’m reading
and eating alone
my husband having taken
a last October ride he says I could bundle up
but I don’t see any reason to
there
another pass of I don’t know what
door panes squaring its flit
that ghost is the second possibility I consider
is telling telling I say to myself
I could not believe in ghosts but I don’t see
any reason to
a bird materializes
on the chair outside wholly in shadow
there and not there
I want to have you again
as ghost even to keep you with me
glimpse or glance
corporeal
bird a perfect explanation
fine then I want to have you
as a bird I will tell you
what I have to say in bird language
I think I could learn it
like eternal vows I’ve made
if eternity is a shadow that flickers
a bird away a ghost
in the corner of my eye
Copyright © 2025 by Lisa Bickmore. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on November 21, 2025, by the Academy of American Poets.
