Patrick Wilcox
Don't Hate me when i come back to haunt you
Patrick Wilcox
Don't Hate Me When I Come Back to Haunt You
We could never agree on what it was
that made a ghost a ghost. You said a ghost
was a story. I said a ghost
was a memory. You said a story and a memory
are the same and you had never been so wrong
and I took that ghost and stuffed it
under the guest bed and after I left for work
you stole it and locked it in the closet
under the stairs and how hideous it is
the ghosts people get into, the ghosts they sell,
the ghosts they ghost back into themselves
because they run out of stories and memories
to wrong them in. I was wrong. I have not seen you
in years, and still I am possessed by the pain
of being remembered. I am here though I do not
want to be here. I am standing right behind you.
Patrick Wilcox is from Independence, Missouri, a large suburb just outside Kansas City. He studied English and Creative writing at the University of Central Missouri where he also was an Assistant Editor for Pleiades and Editor-in-Chief of Arcade. He is a three-time recipient of the David Baker Award for Poetry, the 2020 honorable mention of Ninth Letter’s Literary Award in Poetry, and grand-prize winner of The MacGuffin’s Poet Hunt 26. His work has appeared in Maudlin House, Quarter After Eight, West Trade Review, and Copper Nickel, among others. He currently teaches English Language Arts at William Chrisman High School.