Closet Of Her Childhood

Closet Of Her Childhood
© Surazeus
2025 01 04

When Carla hears voices behind the door, 
like in horror movies she never watches, 
she calls her mother on the telephone 
that crawls on turtle legs along the wall, 
who tells her to give money to the clerk 
wearing red clown nose with gray business suit. 

Three children knock at front door of her house 
and call her mother with voice of the horse 
that gallops wildly in the misty field, 
so she hides in the television set 
when they climb in the window of her eyes 
and romp around the house with gleeful shouts. 

Clinging to her arm and leg and waist 
as she walks around the ever-shifting house, 
three children transform into purring cats, 
so Carla lounges with them on the couch 
while watching cooking shows to understand 
how alchemy transforms the heart to gold. 

Needing food to feed her hungry brood, 
Carla opens wallet Bob left behind, 
but dollars bills transform to butterflies 
that fly through cracks in the pictureless wall 
where light of the red moon cannot get in, 
so she picks mushrooms from cold basement walls. 

Each time passenger jets roar overhead, 
shaking foundation of theology, 
Carla hides in closet of her childhood 
when planes bombed houses and churches in Kyiv, 
then sits at round table of Camelot 
to drink coffee and think about her cats. 

When the Bible salesman knocks at her door, 
she gazes surprised at his angel face, 
and asks him if he is her Sariel 
who rescued her from her house when she died 
in flames that consumed all her photographs, 
but Samuel hurries away in despair. 

Opening upstairs bedroom door of faith, 
Carla asks the old armless troubadour 
if he remembers Song of Hiawatha 
while he swallows the fish-writhing guitar 
then recites the chemical elements, 
describing the properties of each one. 

Carving arms of wood with pulleys and wires, 
Carla helps Caelus play guitar again, 
so he waves farewell and strides down the road 
to lead lost refugees from global wars 
in revolution against tyranny 
while she paints portraits of her guardian angel.