Addressing My Ghosts (Poetry)

This conversation
doesn’t really add
up to very much
for the most part you
fail to answer me

unless you’re counting
the odd grunt or moan
which the disbeliever
would explain away
by scientific

laws of expansion
and contraction which
cause dead wood to creak
or draughts through a door’s
narrow crack to ‘speak’

While accepting that
I don’t converse with
the inanimate
but with sly spirits
who are listening

and no doubt mocking
this bold attempt at
communication
I need names before
I can drive you out!