Cover Art: Prunella Clough, Shadow Play 6 from the series Shadow Play. 1991. Etching. MOMA.

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You see me as a shadow,

my history as a shadow. My nakedness is
shadow. My resplendent constant absence.
My Christmas is a shadow. The river by my
house, shadow. Even God is a shadow

when God comes into my backyard.
There are some people who are seen.
There are some people who are as dark
as the moon. As a child I was swallowed
​
by fog. It has been a thousand years of eyes
unable to see me. You’d think I’d beg
to be seen, but I write these words and know
only other ghosts, like you, will read them.

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Ron Riekki wrote U.P.: a novel and Posttraumatic: A Memoir, and edited Undocumented, The Many Lives of The Evil Dead, And Here, Here, and The Way North.  He has books upcoming with Main Street Rag, Loyola University Maryland’s Apprentice House Press, McFarland, and Wayne State University Press.

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