by KC Trommer

All around the island I feel her ghost
and wonder what more she would’ve made—

There’s flaking lead paint, vines,
trees growing inside buildings
and under the asbestos.

There is a girl, only 22, half shadow,
one arm crisp, still in the frame,
getting herself on paper.

Alone in the house, I expect Francesca
every time I turn a corner,
expect her eyes soulful and sullen,

half caught/half deserting,
mooning up at me.
Adjust the aperture, let it all in.

In the summer, there’s a suicide
in my family, not the first. That decision
to exit so heavy on everyone left behind.

Some ghosts weigh a ton, heave
themselves on your back, never leave.
Others whisper you into the next day.

Francesca, I never knew you.
Come close. Come back.
Let all of you be seen.

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KC Trommer is the author of We Call Them Beautiful (Diode Editions, 2019). A Spanish-language translation is forthcoming in 2024 from Cuarto Propio, translated by the Chilean poet Elisa Montesinos. KC is founder of the online poetry mapping project QUEENSBOUND. Since 2021, she has been poet-in-residence on Governors Island, through LMCC's Residency Program, Works on Water, and the NYU Gallatin WetLab. She lives in Jackson Heights, Queens, with her son.