Ghost
by Ian Mahler
here are the rules:
you don’t touch me. don’t
speak to me. you
pretend not to see me and I
do the same. you don’t
breathe anymore, do not
sneeze sigh not even whisper you
don’t. open your eyes. rattle
the silver full moons on your lashes do not
haunt me I want to
forget your
name
Ian Mahler is a non-binary, autistic queer author and artist with a lasting fondness for green tea and Granny Smiths. In his spare time he draws and writes poems that his friends tell him are ‘quite sad’. Find him on twitter @ianmahler.
What surprising, fascinating stuff can you tell us about the origin, drafting, and/or final version of “Ghost”? I came out to my parents in my teens. The corrective therapy that followed created a permanent rift between us. Despite our estrangement Facebook would later suggest them as friends. I wrote this piece on my phone when my thoughts got too loud for me. I wanted to express the need to remove someone from your life, and the impossibility of it. The title is a play on the word -ghosting being the practice of ceasing all communication, often online.
Check out the write-up of the journal in The Writer.
Matter Press recently released titles from Meg Boscov, Abby Frucht, Robert McBrearty, Tori Bond, Kathy Fish, and Christopher Allen. Click here.
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Submissions
Poetry, creative nonfiction, and fiction/prose poetry submissions are now closed. The reading period for standard submissions opens again September 15, 2025. Submit here.
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