Unf n shed Bus ness by Benjamin Aleshire

No one tries to become a ghost.
But then you wake spectral

in the barrel of an empty shotgun
apartment like an unspent round.

Apart-ment. You lose your self in the erasure
of the city’s map: Independence St,

a streetcorner’s pillaged sidewalk tiles—
IND P ND NC , letters cracked

as the bathroom mirror mimicking you
when you spell out what you need

 in steam. I’d like to solve the puzzle, please—
you announce to no one, close enough to kiss

the glass to see if any breath opaques you
before you wipe it away, reappear.

Benjamin Aleshire’s work has appeared in The Times UK, Iowa Review, and London Magazine. For many years he made his living by traveling the world and composing poems for strangers in the street on an Olivetti typewriter. An excerpt of his novel-in-progress, POET FOR HIRE, was featured at Lit Hub.