if ghosts

Tanya Olson

ghosts unableto cross water ghostsunable to climb stairsgravity a stooped ghostwho ferries us homeradar ghosts radio ghostssunlight ghostlightmoonlight ghostlight’s ghostpepper’s burn ghostcat’s stare ghostyour dead brothercalls your name ghostin the planeyou’re a ghosttrailing behind youthe ghost of a ghostimagine their numberno wonder we hear themthey feed on our facesuntil we become thema ghost reads this poemto the ghosts of the poema mother ghosta father ghosthear the leaves rustlethat’s a ghost’s shuffle

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Tanya Olson’s second book, Stay, was released with YesYes Books in spring 2019. Her first book, Boyishly, was published by YesYes in 2013 and received a 2014 American Book Award. In 2010, she won a Discovery/Boston Review prize and she was named a 2011 Lambda Fellow by the Lambda Literary Foundation. Her poem “54 Prince” was chosen for inclusion in Best American Poems 2015. Tanya Olson lives in Silver Spring, Maryland and is a Senior Lecturer in English at UMBC (University of Maryland, Baltimore County).

Portland, Oregon

Stay is a broad American exploration of what it costs to remain in a place, an idea, an identity, as well as what it costs to leave these things. Grounded in American music, these poems dig into and flee from worlds and beliefs, marking what is gained and lost with every arrival and departure.

"Olson’s work probes deeply into the American psyche."
—Risa Denenberg, The Rumpus

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