Instructions for Becoming a Ghost
While Still Breathing
First stop answering your name when called
Let it be a reflection in empty rooms,
a vision that once meant you.
Practice forgetting the sway of your shadow.
Watch it grow thin at noon.
Leave your keys in your car.
Your coffee cup, half-empty on the table.
Let someone else wonder whose lips touched the cup
Begin with small erasures
the way you sign your letters
the particular slant of your handwriting
dissolving into nothing.
Stop wearing shoes that make noise.
Stop wearing colors that catch light.
Become the space between words,
the pause before rumbling.
Learn the art of almost-presence:
how to stand in doorways
without crossing thresholds,
how to love without leaving fingerprints
on what you touch.
Finally, practice the deepest vanishing.
Become the one who remembers
instead of the one remembered.
Carry their laughter in your hollow heart,
their stories in your disappearing hands.
This is how the living learns to haunt.
By loving the dead so completely
we forget which side of the grave we stand on.
About the Creator
Tim Carmichael
Tim is an Appalachian poet and cookbook author. He writes about rural life, family, and the places he grew up around. His poetry and essays have appeared in Bloodroot and Coal Dust, his latest book.
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Comments (6)
I disappeared as I read it. Beautiful evocative writing.
ooooh, I especially loved these lines: Become the space between words, the pause before rumbling Excellent work.
Really cool! Invisibility isn't instantaneous. I especially can relate to starting with small erasures. ⚡💙Bill ⚡
Oh my, that last line was absolutely brilliant! To forget which side of the grave we're standing on. Loved it so much!
"Carry their laughter in your hollow heart, their stories in your disappearing hands. This is how the living learns to haunt." Beautifully done. I love these lines, they are haunting.👏👏👏
"Become the space between words, the pause before rumbling." This poem has some gorgeous wording, I absolutely love how this feels like a set of instructions, but it also definitely has this disappearing quality. It reads like a romantic poem, or perhaps something by Sylvia Plath. It is like every word has been hand chosen for its purpose. Definitely one of my favourites by you at the moment x