First Prize winner of the 5th Occasional Geist Erasure Poetry Contest.

Nana loves

that I still use her beautiful glassware,

with cordial affection.

And eat at her art deco dining table,

more precious than all the world.

There are responsibilities to the Spirits.

‘Smile darling—eat dear.’

(Later tonight in dreams)

A different being I have never seen before.

Pardon me spirit—you are not my Nana.

The Erasure Text for the 5th Occasional Geist Erasure Poetry Contest is an excerpt from A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder, by James De Mille, published by Harper & Brothers in 1888.