Open / Close

My House Opened Today

The carpet was glittering

The closet expanded twice in size

My bedroom was made intimate, filled 

With a blend of sunlight and your scent

When I enter the dreaming room 

Sends a greeting via electricity

The breath of sun through glass lulls me to the Long Sleep.

At night my house reached for the stars,

Stacking room on top of room 

Until it looked an old wizard’s ivory tower.

I’m a dreamer now: I ascend floor by floor 

By the light of a full moon

An old man when I reach the top

Fit only for admiring my collection of precious gemstones

And writing down each of their stories.

My House Closed Today

The living room rearranged itself in advance warning

A tunnel opened beneath the kitchen sink to the forest

the walls and ceiling drew in towards each other for warmth

(the cat escapes with a yelp down the tunnel)

I am pressed in towards my own heart

with the pressure of a black hole,

Reminding me of the room we painted all black with gold

An underground railroad of freed demons and hopeful poets

has been established beneath the kitchen sink

But the home has my heart,

I will not leave.

the walls press in and become my skin

I shout and heave to force air through my house-body

I can breathe, with limbs of insulation and stucco,

I walk, slow as the moon, through the inner unknown

Illuminating the void 

With one experience, then another, then another.

Alex Light is editor and producer of The Mandarin.