Today’s National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo) is: Write a poem in which mysterious and magical things occur. Your poem could take the form of a spell, for example, or simply describe an event that can’t be understood literally.

This poem is inspired by stories about a haunted house in my hometown.

Broken toys,
litter the floor.
A young voice,
asks for his green dinosaur,
and a child’s pale face peeks through the door,
just like the night before.
Giggling, whispered conversations are overheard in the halls,
and brown crayon drawings cover the walls.
And yet, no child lives here at all.