Why Do Ghosts Wear Clothes? Poem by James McLain

Why do ghosts wear clothing, you ask,
as though their spirits need a mask?
Perhaps the fabric wraps them tight,
to keep the memory of the night.

Clothes are not just thread and seam,
they're the traces of a once-held dream.
Worn jackets, dresses—faded, torn,
the remnants of lives once again reborn.

But the age of a ghost is hard to say,
for time is a shadow that slips away.
Maybe they're born the moment they leave,
or they've always existed, never to grieve.

Clothing is what keeps them looking real,
a form that lets their past still feel.
So ghosts wear clothes to hold on tight,
to the pieces that remain after life's flight.