We Don't Know Who We Are by Juleigh Howard-Hobson

Yet, we know that we’ll never leave. 

We died here. We learned years

ago that nothing would change, no matter 

how we sobbed. We’re a haunted secret, 

shut from all memory. Our copious tears

fall in unfound graves.  

Dead hearts may shatter, dead spirits can suffer. 

We might weep, but we’ll never leave. 

Should you hear us crying bitterly,

should our numinous presence – 

unseen, unmarked—make you sense 

a sudden chill dread,

that is not your imagination; we 

are here. 

We slip through grey sorrow, between

life and death. We can’t move on. 

As we said,

we’ll never leave.

Juleigh Howard-Hobson’s work has appeared in Midnight Echo, The Dead Lands, Under Her Skin (Black Spot) Vastarien: Women’s Horror (Grimscribe) and many other places. Noms include Pushcart, Elgin, Best of the Net and Rhysling. She was named Laureates' Choice in the 2024 Maria W. Faust Sonnet Contest. Her latest book is Curses, Black Spells and Hexes (Alien Buddha). An active member of the SFPA and the HWA, she lives on the Pacific Northwest coast of the US in a decidedly haunted house. X: @poetforest