"Interview with the Ghost," a poem spurred by Phasmophobia

When were you as the bullet fragmented your heart?

Art by Nadia Gerassimenko

Dear hopeful reader,

Inspiration can come from the strangest of places. I would never have thought that a scary, silly game like Phasmophobia, made by Kinetic Games, would prompt a poem in me. And yet it did.

Phasmophobia was released at a time when a lot of us were in lockdown and/or isolated. It allowed us to stay connected with each other while hunting for ghosts. Embarking on the journey with just two players is a spooky experience. When there’s four of you, it becomes spoopy, to the point of hilarious. Either way, it’s so much fun!

Back to the poem. In the game, you can communicate with the ghosts using a spirit box or an Ouija board to clue you in on what kind of spirit you’re dealing with. However, you never know what they were like before they departed the human plane.

Intrigued by the unknown, I imagined asking questions to a ghost stuck in the in-between. I imagined getting to know what made them human once, what remnants of humanity remain in them still. And thus “Interview with the Ghost” was written.

The questions are straightforward enough. But I imagined a spirit not being able to communicate like a human does would answer with ambiguities. I imagined it being difficult to even speak. So the answers are obscure and can be interpreted in different ways, depending on how they speak to you.

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Interview with the Ghost

Are you here?
Close.
What are you?
I am nothing. I am everything.
Who are you?
I float fluid.
When were you as the bullet fragmented your heart?
Between laughter & a gasp.
Are you alone?
Trapped in echo chamber. 
Are you lonely?
Touch me.
Whom do you love?
Her cherry lips haunt me in loops.
Do you regret anything?
I rage against the dying & for my dead.
Do you want revenge?
But, life always shows the end in line.
Where do you go from here?
I circle counter-clockwise, rewinding time.
Will you always be here?
Don’t forget me.

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Now it’s your turn, dear poets. Write your own poetic interview with a spirit. Or it could be a fictional character such as Count Dracula or historical figure like Cleopatra. Or maybe you have questions left unanswered you want to ask a loved one or former lover. Or you have ghosts within you and you want to exorcise them.

Ask weird questions. Or be blunt in your questioning. Make your answers as outrageous as possible, or soft and quiet. Answer poetically, allegorically. Be funny, use puns. Challenge your interviewee to a banter duel like in Monkey Island. And most importantly, have fun with the process.

What is your scariest, spookiest writing? Show me! Also, who wants to play Phasmophobia with me and the hubs sometime?

Yours hopefully,

Nadia

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