Poetry | Autumn 2022

“The Door” & “Underneath”

Two House Poems

by Christina Lambert

The Door

Tension rises

Inconvenient and ignored

Pushed away into an unacknowledged corner

to grow wild and unseen

But in sleep

a door opens in the darkness

Wishes and wants

granted in dreams with no boundaries

Undeniable need

races wild

Electricity hums

Veins pulse and beg

Phantom hands

wrap around thickness

pulling tight

the threads of thoughts long denied

Deeper into the night

we all become

who we are

Underneath

The mouth of the woods

is choked with briars and weeds

but strange flowers

guide me down a wild path

where fairy houses hide

the doors that connect

to everything

Caution couldn’t stop me

before I turned the handle

The stairs hum below my feet

Underneath

things are more

complicated

Better than anticipated

I travel through rivers and veins

into scarred caves and tunnels

The cracks in the walls are sealed with sound

that leads me through the depths

Sunrise paints a blurry picture

The wind tells me I can’t stay

but before I’m thrown back into the woods

answers ink my skin

The world within worlds

can’t be unseen