How to Become a Ghost Story

Why does red velvet denote a cake
when I want it to denote my body?
Exteriors are beautiful but
I am too young to cough up blood.
It is a sad story but it is my story.
In some versions, the princess fails
to recover the magic fruit.
In every version there is a death,
but she can never choose hers.
I want you to think of me during war time,
or whenever the first leaf starts to fall.

The Darkness

We meet in the darkness
We point at the darkness
We laugh at the darkness
We pelt the darkness with potatoes
and tomatoes, in every accent
We throw gum at the darkness
Blow a raspberry at the darkness
The darkness turns to look at us
and we look back at her.

Nadia de Vries is the author of Dark Hour (Dostoyevsky Wannabe, 2018). Her first Dutch book, Kleinzeer, is forthcoming from Uitgeverij Pluim. She lives in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.