There was a ghost in my house
cora little
Close your eyes: you should not have to watch
what happens here.
What pained struggle
happens in the dark
of a bedroom.
What act of destruction
unfolds and smothers
someone in that dark.
Close your eyes: do not watch
as a life is poisoned there
You should not have to see the after
of a person curled around
themselves in a room
that stopped being a room.
Close your eyes: as she turns
into a ghost
haunting a pullout couch.
You shouldn’t have to watch
as she lingers
and she withers
and she cannot walk
through that alien
and hostile place.
“Close your eyes”
the ghost asks
so you do not see her
still there.
Cora Little (she/her) is a sophomore writing major from Oklahoma. She enjoys working with both poetry and fiction. She is currently focused on writing material that expresses raw experience and creates meaning from a dis-ordered reality.