You Ask
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Last night stayed up talkingto the dead, only later to wake upat threeish to noises afoot but faintrustles in the anteroom, visited by this thought:
Am I about to have one of those momentswith a ghost I mean, I don't believe this, butmaybe I'm wrongSouls must be wavering about this placebeing not exactlyrestless but not exactly at rest—and—at rest from whatthey had
nothing to rest against
and I look toward the doorthinking: this is how it happenshow you meet the crowds of the deadand curious
whose room was it
with this whiteplanked floor
who in winter are they coming
Sharon L. Howell is a Lecturer in History and Literature and Dean of Adams House at Harvard University. Her poems have appeared in publications including Notre Dame Review and Colorado Review, and she is the winner of a 2010 artist fellowship in poetry from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. slhowell@fas.harvard.edu
