The man I nearly married calls years later unexpectedly • Kelly Nelson

He said it sounded
like I had died, like it was

my ghost
speaking to him.

Who was I
to say it wasn’t.

Who was I to say
I was alive.

I told him the afterlife is good
free trains always running

on time, noodle shops
and plenty of mangoes.

He said, okay, good night
I’m so glad I called.


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Kelly Nelson is the author of the forthcoming 
chapbook Rivers I Don’t Live By, winner of 
the 2013 Concrete Wolf Chapbook Award.
She also has work forthcoming in I-70 
Review, Another Chicago Magazine, 
NonBinary Review and Bluestem. She 
has lived without a car for the past 
14 years in metro Phoenix and is 
currently editing an anthology of car-free
 poetry: poems in which people walk, bike, ride
a train, subway or bus to get around. 
She volunteers as an art gallery docent 
and teaches Interdisciplinary Studies at 
Arizona State University.