alisonlittleblog

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A Head Full of Ghosts is a piece of flash fiction by Alison Little, exploring memory, absence, and the quiet persistence of those who linger in our lives—whether through distance, disconnection, or loss. In a voice that is both intimate and reflective, it traces the fragile boundary between holding on and moving forward.

A head full of ghosts hums louder at dusk

All day I carry them—the men I knew, or thought I did. Some have slipped out of orbit, their voices stretched thin. Others still walk the world, glimpsed in passing like silhouettes crossing lit windows. I could pass them on Bold Street and not know. I could know and still not reach.

They follow me online, though not as themselves. New names, new masks. It’s like standing before a one‑way mirror: they see me—older, altered, still moving—but when I press my palms to the glass, it’s only my own face staring back. Tonight I imagine knocking. I imagine saying, Tell me who you are now. Let me meet you again.

But the real ghosts aren’t behind glass.

They don’t scroll past on screens. They aren’t living in another city, waiting for chance collisions at cafés or crossings. They’re gone in the oldest sense—lifted clean off the map. What’s left is a thin archive of memory, flickering and unreliable.

And in that flicker, I hesitate.

How do you move forward when your body remembers someone who no longer exists? How do you let new hands learn you without feeling the shape of the old? Closeness feels necessary and impossible at once, like trying to warm yourself at a fire that won’t catch.

Yet standing still has its own cost.

If I refuse to step into touch, into risk, into the unfinished present, then I stay here—suspended, listening to echoes.

A head full of ghosts, and no room left for the living.

Further Reading & Reflection

Books

• A Grief Observed — short, reflective writing on loss

• The Year of Magical Thinking — powerful exploration of grief

• Writing Genre Flash Fiction the Minimalist Way — for readers inspired by the style

Journaling & writing tools

• Yolk Notebook — for personal reflection

• Pocket Notebook — great for penning quick notes when on the move.

• Primo Pen — simple, elegant writing tool

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