This ghost is learning
/Natalli Amato
Summer is gone. Like the good ghost that I am
I walk to where the beach turns to cattails,
the small palm of land that held my bare back
when you were inside me,
inside me, and the moon looked on,
and the water looked on through the reeds,
and the air was part of our being,
being the medium that allowed travel for our gasps,
our breath.
Land is not concerned with past.
Land is not concerned with future.
Land is.
Now this land is holding my two upright sneakered feet
as I lock eyes with the stray calico cat
who has also come here
to kill something.
Author’s Note: 'This ghost is learning' was written during a period of grief, anger, and confusion. It is part of my forthcoming collection, 'Willing,' set for publication by Golden Dragonfly Press.
Natalli Amato is the author of the poetry collections Burning Barrell and On a Windless Night. She has two forthcoming works, Gone Walking and Other Departures and Willing. She writes for Rolling Stone, Vice, Chopra Global, and Taste of Country. Natalli lives in Burlington, VT, but is from Sackets Harbor. She has been twice nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
