Mary’s Window

the six of us in a downpour
nighttime, late March
lantern remaining lit on the front steps
our guide, Eric, tells us of eight or more known séances
connecting to lost sons
seventeen years in this home—best of your life
laughs for hours in the kitchen and parlor
light on your five-foot-two silhouette
outline witnessed on a shade right of the door
I glance to find you
nearly 200 years after your prologue
forty minutes of tales we rid our umbrellas
questions, wows, tisks
no one else on these cobblestones
across South 8th Street a light flickers above the door 
Blake and Victoria pose for a photograph
frightened from a thump in the living room
yet you do not show yourself
rather admire the children from a distance

Joris Soeding’s most recent collection is In Twos (Bottlecap Press, 2026). Soeding’s writing has appeared in publications such as Another Chicago Magazine, Poetry Pacific, Portage Magazine, and Tint Journal. He is a fifth/sixth grade Social Studies teacher in Chicago, where he resides with his family.