WHISTLING SHADE |
She tells me the dog park is haunted, that every time
we take the dog there, he plays more with the ghosts than he does
the other dogs, that when he starts barking at trees or birds or strangers
he's warning us that we're in a bad place. She tells me
we should find another dog park, she tells me
she's heard of a nice one a little bit farther away from home
but it's close to her church and probably free from ghosts.
She tells me the parking lot at the mall has too many ghosts
for her to buy shoes there, that every time she goes shopping
she's accosted by the same group of ill-mannered ghost children
they know she can see them so they're especially drawn to her.
She wants to got to the museum sometime, look at old photographs
see if she recognizes any of those awful children from the pictures
see if she can figure out what's wrong with them so she can offer them
some sort of help or advise, like they say to do on tv.
She tells me that she thinks her house is haunted, some new ghost
probably brought in by something she picked up at a yard sale or the thrift store.
She worries that this new ghost is attached to something she herself
is particularly attached to, the nice set of earrings she got a good deal
on at the estate sale around the corner, the almost-new glass-fronted hutch
that works so perfectly with her living room set, that ornately-carved doorstop.
She wonders if it's worth the trouble to find out how the ghost got into her house
if it just means she has to get rid of something she really likes.