From the collection published in 2021, The Immediate and No Sooner.
Simple Solution
you howl fierce
rattle chains and shriek
incessant
dark curses
the bedroom closet your lair
behind the dresses
above rows
of shoes. The sway of
T-shirts on
hangers signs
your comings and your goings.
I shut the door. Sleep.
6/11/20
shadorma chain
I think I will stay out of your house. 😏
(But also, I always remind my husband to close the closet door.)
Yes. An open closet door is and always has been a portal to uneasiness to me – do I see something there out of the corner of my eye?
Quick slam that door shut!
I sort of don’t even like to walk by an open closet.
If I’m reading a book with an author’s photo on the back, I have to turn it over before I go to sleep, so they can’t look at me. 😏
Well, I think that sounds completely understandable. And I’m not being facetious, I mean it.
Thank you. 😊
You need an exterminator! Whatever is in the closet sounds a bit dangerous!! hehe!
Yes. And that is why the closet door must stay closed. Yes. Since my childhood I have thought this!
There is something a bit darkly Narnia-esque about this closet. What it brought to mind for me, however, was the little closet in my Granddad’s spare room which, if we climbed into it and turned to the right, provided a narrow access up to the attic. It was such a magical space to explore as a child.
In my bedroom the access to the attic was a little door in the back of the closet, when I was young. I think that influenced me in my dislike of closets, I always thought, a closet is bad enough but the attic lurking back there…
I have mixed feelings about attics. When I am familiar with it and it is a light and spacious one, I like exploring it; the idea of going into a strange and/or dark attic, however, gives me the total heebie-jeebies.
“Immediate and No Sooner’ – such a brilliant title for an anthology. And another brilliant little poem full of so much imagery!
Thank you on both counts. And…don’t leave your closet door open. Ever. Right?!?