island as a ghost
the island spreads its long syrupy fingers to its edges

dips tips into its own murky waters

echoing with murmurs and

the calloused rhythm it beats out

syncopated and heavy

with bones or words unsaid

bodies of water full /

                              of bodies

the island anxiously reaffirms itself

the island is not guilt-free

the island contains multitudes

the island is ambivalent and rearticulates itself

the island might gesture to what we leave behind

the island carries the humming of kin

               in all their thick knowledge

               that weight could break a cop’s back

the island is full of violence

the island is a shadowy border outlined until real

the island is an exercise in white fear

the island is an exercise in black infinity

                              ghosts on the island are promised futures circling,

                                                                                                         haunting

ghost as an essay
                              ghost whispers in the margins and reveals infinity

                                             scrawled notes languidly travel to a tangential conclusion

                              each citation is a ghost speaking in tongues

                              ghost carries language that tastes like metal

                              ghost converts callouses into question marks

                                             where a line in the margins is a whisper laugh

                                             humming towards new bodies

                                             humming towards a circle

                              ghost is a text unsure about where it’s going,

                                                                                          knows where it’s from

                              a haunting is just a studied pause

                              lapping against water full of ghosts

                              an essay is a ghost dancing to the gaps and silences

                              syncopated melody tapped out on bones

                              or hands holding hands

                              or hands holding paper like the past

                              the past is a ghost writing itself into a slow essay

                              an essay is a ghost on island time

                                                                                          essay as water

                                                                                          the essay, lapping ocean words on words

                                                                                          rock pools through all this language

                                                                                          spreading like blue whispers

                                                                                          crevices in old buildings

                                                                                          the essay sprawls, an unfinished.                             leaking