[cw: death/ghosts]
Ghost Story
All this raw cauliflower is causing me to hallucinate.
How else can I explain waking to a dead girl
by the wood burner, eyes the colour of excavated bone?
She follows wherever I go. My ribs, the monkey bars
she dangles from. Lungs, a crawl space for hide & seek.
Stop! I shout, after a cyclist shines in the headlights,
helmet flecked red. Passengers move to distant seats,
the bus driver softens his voice, sweetheart, there is no one
there. I visit a woman who charges her crystal dildo
on a full moon. The black obsidian on my necklace
welcomes spirits, she warns, conjuring the word gifted.
I think of how there is never enough sage
for the bad energy in this commune, how it was built
on a battleground of the Spanish civil war,
where the girl was murdered, her body dumped
in the acequia surrounding my truck.
Around the campfire, others warm their hands
on rumours of her suffering while she sits beside me,
her wet hair dripping into her lap, the both of us, shivering.
**2024 Pushcart nominee
Beeper Peddle is a writer and healer living on the East Coast. She lives with her partner and their beloved soul puppy. Beeper writes about sorrows, lies, and deep loves. When you read her work, you will dip down into her heart and end up in all manner of body parts. Should you find yourself reflected in these words, it is merely coincidence; however, it does not surprise her you share the same heart. Find her at bethpeddle.com and @beeperpeddle on Twitter and Instagram
Carson Wolfe (they/them) is a Mancunian poet and winner of New Writing North’s Debut Poetry Prize (2023). Their pamphlet Boy(ish)Vest (2022) was praised by Dr. Kim Moore as an “unforgettable, wild, risk-taking roller-coaster of a book.” Their work has appeared in Rattle, Fourteen Poems, Button Poetry, and The Penn Review. You can find them at www.carsonwolfe.co.uk.
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