Ghost Stories

These partial stories, forgotten stories, gaps
in stories, detailed stories, these unfinished
stories, over-and-done-with stories, stories
hidden in stories, stories hidden by stories,
these shards of stories, hints of stories, dead-
end stories, these spiralling stories, stories with
unknown endings, tellable stories, unmentionable
stories, repressed stories, these highlights-only
stories, oft-repeated stories, filtered stories,
fleeting-snippet childhood stories, these before
stories, after stories, trailing-off stories, these
spiked stories, like-yesterday stories
haunt us

and they will,
until we have them all, all,
exactly. And then,
mortal, they will haunt us still.

— RUTH MANDEL

(Originally published Christmas, 1999.)