High-Visibility
The precondition for being a ghost is not only death but faith in an afterlife. Kit Fan.

When I lost loved ones last year
I thought my childhood fears would return.

Sleeping in mum’s house waiting
for the seen and felt,

the stupid spoon on the ouija board,
cold coming into a room.

Like when I swept offices, and ran
from the room with dummies in.

But now I find the absence more terrifying.
Oh god, maybe I don’t miss them enough.

Maybe the dead move amongst us
and we hurry through the ghost city,

like commuters, eyes down,
unaware of the cleaners coming home,

the men in high-vis jackets congregating
at the edge of the floodlit road.

Piers Haben is a British poet and recovering economist, currently living on Pico Island, Azores, where his writing explores the intersections of labour and island life, whilst also physically working with stone and soil. Piers was recently shortlisted for the 2025 Wolverhampton WoLF poetry competition.