They tell me this place is evil

That they pervert your brain with loneliness

The ceilings talk if you listen

And the walls dance like waves

Oh! But she across the hall is nice

She across the hall is kind

But even she says it’s weird here

That she lives bad dreams each night

Yet I took no heed to such things

Until those visions came for me too

There are ghosts here:

The air is chilly

A body in the freezer frozen like cod

There are colors pink green ultramarine

Muses

Outside pulchritudinous in their multitude

Yet in here they cry out and extend their arms

Toward windows that won’t open as much as they try

So I bargain with them every night:

In exchange for a promise of restful sleep

I trade in a small piece of my mind

It’s been days now, maybe months

I smile when I go to bed

When I wake all I do is pace these halls

She joins me but does not chat

She is a funny one, I joke with the carpet

She is, it replies