One day this will all be a pleasant memory | Cat Dixon

The ghosts come in the winter and bring

the moon without her scarf, the miles

of snowshoe trails down the mountains

zigzagging their way to the

ice on your front steps. The hills—cold

loaves of sugar, set ablaze by caramel,

by the unfiltered starlight ladled out by

each ghost—burn bright purple,

red, and white. Tonight you’ve found

such warmth comforting—sweet

cinnamon stick stirring your mug of

hot chocolate; Asian pear sliced open, 

lying on the saucer, reveals that

at its center a tiny star flashes. The

ghosts arrive and you set the table.

Cat Dixon is a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee. She is the author of Eva and Too Heavy to Carry(Stephen F. Austin University Press, 2016, 2014) and the chapbook, Table for Two (Poet's Haven, 2019). Recent work published in Sledgehammer Lit and Whale Road Review. She is a poetry editor at The Good Life Review. Twitter: @DixonCat