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my friends and i are ghosts, but we're ghosts together

by E.M. Lark


deep breaths taken in twofold, I am learning what it is like again to trust.

our hearts are uneasy, our mouths dry,

but surviving amidst its impossible replenish.

this game of survival has never been one I’ve understood—

individualist, eat-or-be-eaten

gnawing at the flesh of camaraderie

we lost sight of that hope long before we could sink our teeth

into something more fresh.

but we are trying, oh how we are trying –


we are far more alive than we are dead, but I can still see what haunts us

is in the room.

are we sharing ghosts?

exchanging phantoms hand-for-hand, in this market trade of troubles,

your hand shakes like mine, and for the first time in forever, I don’t feel

so alone.

I am not afraid to tremble, not afraid to be soft –

I hope you are not afraid in front of me.

we endure too much fear, heartache, exsanguination,

in this one fractured life


wouldn’t it be nice to live and die a little slower, together?



E.M. Lark (they/them) is a writer/reader & reviewer/casual hauntologist currently based in NYC (and also everywhere). Recent works can be found in Hearth & Coffin, corporeal, JAKE, Penumbra Online, The Lumiere Review, among others past and future. On most social medias as @thelarkcalls.

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