I Look for Ghosts

By Lisa Alves

I look for ghosts on my way home

behind me, above me, below me, around me. 

Radio sounds slip through open windows;

ghosts can travel through airwaves,

can’t they? 

Steamy car windows concealing 

a soon to be ghost story.

Streetlights and moonlight guide me to my front door.

I look for ghosts in my home 

beside me, across from me, beneath me, all over me.

Pipes creak and floors squeak;

ghosts live behind walls

Don’t they?

I read the ceiling for clues 

for the woman who used to lay in my room. 

Lamp lights and candle light lull me to sleep.

I look for ghosts in my dreams;

no light there to keep them away.

When the air is radioactive 

that’s when they come out to play.

But I awake before they have a chance to say…

Lisa Alves (she/the) is a multi-hyphenate human journeying the world as a theatre artist, producer, writer, and visual artist. They are based in Tkaron:to near the Wonscontach (Toronto, Canada near the Don River). Currently, Lisa is the Managing Producer of Cahoots Theatre where they have produced productions including Three Ordinary Men by Steven Elliot Jackson and our place by Kanika Ambrose. Lisa is currently working on a musical inspired by the life of The Birdman of Mississauga, Roy Iver, titled Windinglane and their plays Pulse and Temporal. Follow Lisa on Instagram @lisa_a_alves to see some of their work, thoughts and their life with hamsters Eleanor Waffles and Theodora Umbrella.