Anniversary

This house wasn’t a year
emptied out boxes thick of you
each memory fumbled through fingers
unfortunate
I walk this place
a funeral of opened empty doors
blank walls confront me
pugilistic as a concussion grenade
pictures picked out with wire
silhouettes in dust
I walk the carpet
dimpled furniture ghosts
shrouds float in dust moats
between where we used to be and where I am

alone
nature slithers over thresholds to tangle up with carpet fibers
turn this place water logged and brown
all out doors crept up
soft footsteps up the path so blur the edges
make everything sound numb

this house wasn’t even a year long away before carved wood notched initials
turned to murky scars
half hidden under moss beards
this scar passed three anniversaries
when they said it’d fade in one
wood rots
paint chips
my bones squeak like swing chain rust
wading out among the willow branches
broken
straining my eyes to watch your
truck kick up the drive dust
to see the lips
that mime a kiss
That says
“Goodbye”

 

” Walk Away” ©vStacy Esch

 

Gia Grillo is a poet living and working in the shadow of New York City. She has helped run workshops for local high school and grade school students, hosted and participated in a community workshops and open mics, all focusing on poetry as a cathartic and accessible art form. In March 2015 her poem ‘Haxan’ was published in Black Heart Magazine.

Stacy Esch lives and works in West Chester, Pennsylvania, teaching English at West Chester University. Digital art and photography are the twin passions that compete alongside her interest in writing, reading, songwriting, and gardening. She has previously published works in Ibbetson Street, Turkshead Review and wordriver literary review. She has produced cover art for chapbooks by Kenneth Pobo including (Save My Place and Placemats.) and illustrations for When The Light Turns Green from Spruce Alley Press.