haunted houses don't look the way they do in the movies.
they aren't dark and dreary.
there's no antique gothic furniture, no creepy paintings.
no books for some spectre to pull off a shelf
and throw at a wall-
those got sold at the garage sale over the fourth of July weekend.
and you couldn't salvage the bookshelf,
so you left it on the curb.

and there's probably a good number of cobwebs at first,
but everything will be vacuumed and dusted before the week is out.
and it smells like fresh paint when you first walk in,
so the colour appeals more to new buyers,
but you can still see the gaudy yellow underneath the crisp white.

and as for the ghosts,
rest assured they'll be there,
but whoever moves in won't see them.
it'll just be me,
and the faint outline against the wall
where the sofa used to be.
and when I look close enough,
I can still see them sitting there.