my dad is an italian ghost

Megan Cannella

and if I had to guess what that means, well fuck if I know.
If I ever get a therapist, I’ll be sure to ask,

but I am not sure my copay
covers ghost talk. I’d check

but I don’t remember my password.
Can you even filter search by your ghosts?

If I had to describe what it’s like to grow up
with an Italian ghost as a father

I’d say there was less pasta
than you’d expect, and thirty years out

mom is still calling herself a widow
because part of us is still

on the timeline where he didn’t die
randomly and alone on an anonymous

hotel balcony, on an anonymous
business trip in fucking Florida.