I fall in love with haunted neighbourhoods
with empty houses
devoid of living but evanescent photographs
stand witness to a time when
the bed wasn’t so empty
with roads that have no cars fluttering by
no pedestrians
no children toddling by with hard candy
with the silence of the streets
the quiet of the quiescent stores
where I can whisper my words to the willows
and the water whispers it back to me
I fall in love with haunted neighbourhoods
with the ghosts that inhabit them because
they know as I know
they are no more real than my love
Nikhita Makam is 16 years old, too young to know much but too old to get away with things. She is the author of ’14 works by a 14 year old’ and calls herself a ‘high school student by day, poet by night’. Nikhita loves octopus. Her works have been published or are forthcoming in The Hearth, CTJ, The Weight Journal, Rare Byrd and elsewhere. She tries her best to maintain a balance between all of her hobbies, editing for Catharlic Lit, studying and the common dreaded enemy to all high school students – homework.