Visitation by Dean Rader

when the ghosts arrive in their little wagons of bone

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Visitation

by Dean Rader

---

The dead are at
my door again

like an ocean
without wave

or curve 
without 

the bullet holes
of the moon

It is the time
of the night

when the ghosts
arrive in their

little wagons 
of bone

do they come
in search of

the not-yet-
forgotten

or do they 
only seek 

stillness 
in the wake 

of the nearly
remembered

what does
it matter

here in the
fire of the

shall never be?

First published in ONLY POEMS (December, 2024)