GHOST IN MY INBOX

For Wes Magee, first published in Reach Poetry 282 in April 2022

In my head I exchange
small-talk with him,
this recent ghost –
after all, he’s not
long gone, hides
round corners, whispers
poems in my ear.

I’m not yet used
to his absence, expect
an answer when I type
a familiar address
into the email TO bar –
haven’t the heart
to delete his messages.

He writes about
his garden, pruning roses,
planting bulbs, visits
to schools, contracts
with obdurate publishers –
all get a mention, stuff
of interest, one to another.

Now he is silenced,
no longer able
to type Dear Moira
into his computer, but
his words haunt
my mind, benign ghosts

lurking in my inbox.