Inside Out
Looking backward through
an open doorway
inward the house
Coraline slept in a closet
upon feather dresses,
pillows of silken leaves
stitched for dreaming.
Her baby fingers grew into
white-gloved hands
picked furless peaches
hanging on the tree inside–
out of the window.
One day she saw a golden
lion silently feeding
on the violets. She went outside
the backward door. He bit
her toe, but over time
she began to doubt
he was real. The unicorn
who she forgot to feed
also disappeared
or died? Letters vanished
in the orange tree. She grew
too big to fit inside
the closet. Walls were stripped
rooms turned bare. magic
chairs had gone the way
of trees turned into kindling.
The roads inside were gone.
She searched the cupboards
to find out where
they went, mourned the long
hallways where she once ran
and flapped her wings. Her arms
ached and grew longer.
She was silent but
not broken. As green
turns to silver
a lost road wound
between the legs of a chair.
Copyright © 2015 by Carrie Albert
lovely and magical and real. Yes !!!