When I removed
the ring I had
been wearing for
a decade, a ghost
ring remained
underneath — the skin
slightly paler
where the gold
had been — my finger
cinched where it
had been constricted
as I prepared to
step into the night —
The Decision
Timothy Liu
Timothy Liu is the author, most recently, of Down Low and Lowdown: Bedside Bottom-Feeder Blues. A reader of occult esoterica, he lives in the Hudson Valley and teaches at SUNY New Paltz and Vassar College.