We moved into this house
because it was so bright
airy, clean, unhaunted
free of strange spirits

But one afternoon while we napped
sleep pressing our eyes shut
air like clay in our lungs
I had an unhappy dream

I fought against the syrupy sleep
trying to move, to turn
I heard something crackling
like embers in a fireplace

While we dozed, shadows
had seeped up through the cracks
like smoke rising till the rafters
suffocating us

The plants are drying, curling
leaves fall onto the floor neglected
we can’t wake up
The ghosts have found us