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Fragments of the Ghost Manifesto
Emily Griffin

1.
Forget everything
about your body
No more hands no more hips

Everything is completely
different now
You must not cling

Bodily meaning is a torpor
your spirit will shake off

3.
To help soothe
yourself try
being a bird

Flight is exhilarating
an azure adventure
something we’ve gained

9.
Never visit old lovers
or beloved places from your past

Seeing our living treasures reminds us
that we’re lost to them
and it angers us

13.
Broken chandeliers
are particularly uplifting

It’s hard to be too solemn
refracted into a dozen rainbows
around an opera house in Glasgow
or reception halls in Brooklyn
and their caramel glow
is particularly delicious

18.
We must always be moving
voraciously observing

All creations have a purpose
and we can still observe
so we watch, create, and record

Smell, taste, listen
but never interact

19.
Balanced curation is a must
We can’t focus on just
the beautiful moments

Follow the gold thread
the way toward the true secret
Record everything that sizzles
whether it be wild, cruel, or ugly

21.
We don’t think about what we’ve lost
It makes us angry and we draw
too much attention when we’re angry

Then bad things
happen to us

25.
First the touches go
then tastes, smells, and sounds
Dreams go last

Love must be outrun
it doesn’t fade naturally

We’re left with sight
and miraculous mobility

42.
Possessing objects for long periods
is forbidden
We must avoid friction
and static shock
It reminds us what it’s like
to have blood
and remembering that
undoes a lot of good work

47.
Ghosts are all the same
to each other
Once our relatives are ghosts
we don’t know them
The same goes for our friends
and our enemies

54.
After losing so much
we still have sight
Why else would we exist
if not to witness?

What could be more worthwhile
than our delicious collective of moments
flowing deep in our hive like honey?

—
Emily Griffin is a librarian, poet, and food enthusiast from Brooklyn, NY, who aims to capture life’s most visceral experiences using interesting, accessible language. She uses techniques from both surrealist and confessional poetry traditions and also enjoys using the figure of the monstrous woman to subvert the reader’s faith in the social construct as it stands. Her work appears in High Shelf Press and in The Aurora Anthology published by Allegory Ridge. She earned her BFA from Emerson College and her MLS from St. John’s University.

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Have you read these poems:
American Epic by John Milkereit
An Unexpected Lesson from a Graduate Education Class by Jeff Morgan

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