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From the Oxford English Dictionary, 5th Edition © 2123: ghost word [ɡōst wərd] n. a word in a dictionary or another collection of words that is not a real word and is usually there because of a mistake1 phantomnation [ˈfantəmˈnāSHən] n. 1. Also known as ectolinguistics; the study or attemptContinue Reading

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A lonely evening, naught in sightbut muted hue of red and blue;the distant glare of corner’s lightwhere few will tread the path at night. You see a figure by the door,a palish white, a moment’s fright,the ghost of some provincial lore—a lonely shore on barren moor. It’s quickly gone, asContinue Reading

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Sky polished, the mirror of night blinks its button-lights, twilightsurrendering to the shock of crescent moon. An owl spooksthe cedars leaning with the wind, upper branches creaking in the hickories.What can’t be seen in midsummer shadow is the latch that locks the phantomsof past desires. Stare into this darkness. TheContinue Reading

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Cauldron smoke riseslike gray ghosts dancing —Translucent gossamer beingsseeking escape from the boil.Twisted fingerstorture them into the air–higher and higheruntil first one, then alldisappear.Out of the black more come,souls flying like eyeless insects, grotesquebut freebecause of the Christmas soup.Continue Reading

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Poltergeist – German origin, “knocking ghost”. You’re not going to believe me, but we got geisted, geisted good and hard. But before we get into that, why don’t we start from scratch. I’ve never been a fan of fabrics that conceal—shower curtains especially, for all the obvious insert-horror-film-scene-here reasons, butContinue Reading

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Lea discovers the photographwhile sorting through the layersof Granddad’s life, cleaningthe mess that so many years of livingleaves behind. Wedged in the seamof a cardboard box, a black and whitepicture of a little boy—dark hair,round cheeks, wide mouth.As soon as Lea sees him, she can hearhis voice in her head,Continue Reading

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As soon as August heat breaks, weatherbecomes a drug, pulls us deep into the woods along the riverbank.Otters romp and roll in the cool stream. Pallid walnut leaves fall from brittlestems where children wait on the school bus. Silky cobwebs cluster in porch corners& branches we bushwhack early mornings. TemperaturesContinue Reading

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How had the intruder gotten in? Not through the dead-bolted door to our fourth-story apartment. Not through the windows. I couldn’t see his face. Our bedroom was too dark. My husband was thirty miles away at Johns Hopkins Hospital on a ventilator with a tube down his throat. To preventContinue Reading