Missing Silverware
Phantoms annoy my memory palace
Late at night into early morning light,
Streeling through the halls like banshee, they sing
Dissonantly and claim to be me
Or my siblings or old friends and lovers,
Even to aping our gestures, taking
Our old dramas and monologues, twisting
Them around into new provocations.
In other venues in the memory
Palace, antique butlers and maids are dimmed
By senility, recalling nothing
Of past events in the ancient dining
Hall, claiming to have no memory of
The rococo world inside of these rooms.
M. G. Stephens is the author of nineteen books, most recently short poems in Occam’s Razor (2015). His works include the novel The Brooklyn Book of the Dead; the memoir Lost in Seoul; and the essay collection Green Dreams. The Brooklyn Rail is currently serializing his boxing novel Kid Coole over the next year.