The people we cannot see

There was a little girl

in the hospital

who saw ghosts

whose father

watched her

under fluorescent lights

Daddy, she said

babbling incoherently,

convinced -

complete belief

in the voices

that we cannot hear

that we cannot see

Darling, he said

there’s nothing there

please, stop

he is waiting for a nurse

we are waiting

out the nightmare

waiting for the medicine

that will create

total erasure

putting

the voices

away