Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance

by Alison Espach

anybody who chose to be alone had no idea what it really meant to be alone.

I felt strongly that if ghosts existed, they wouldn’t haunt municipal pools.

It’s time to live, before we’re dead.”

Hearing is something birds can do; it is passive and requires no feedback. But listening is active. It’s an effort required for actual communication. Communication is feedback.

“That’s what happens when parents die,” he says. “All of a sudden, you want an answer to every question you never thought to ask them.”

And this silence made me feel so stupid. Your silence, it has always been the most perfect punishment.