Actual Persons, Living or Dead

First, turn on the lights.

Ghosts drift toward shadows.

Use the sin of omission as if

it was a life raft, and you can’t

swim. I can swim, of course.

As a child I swam in tanks,

throwing rocks before getting

into the water to scatter the snakes

while my mother doled out advice:

If you fall out of a boat, float.

You can float forever. I never learned

how to float, always defaulting to treading

water. You can do that for a long time.

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MICHELLE BROOKS is the author of three published collections of poetry: Make Yourself Small (Backwaters), The Pretend Life (Atmosphere), Pretty in A HardWay (Finishing Line).