In the age of false eyelashes and litigious email, in the big
house of secrets, is an opulent apron collection. O the ruffling,
the appliqué! Here, no one minds the thorny red vines snaking
around the potted lemon trees, which are unharvested of course,
for show. Lemons the size of grapefruits! It’s the childhood
home of the woman running through it, room to room, turning on
every light, including the lights in the closets, china cabinet and
oven. She let herself in while everyone was away. She glimpses
herself in a silver mirror wild-haired and sweating, and mouths
the word ridiculous to her reflection. She cranks the dimmers all
the way up. The thermostat rises above 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit.
The pet monkey she’s holding says, You know your family
isn’t coming home, right? She says she knows all about that.
Laura Rockhold is a poet, visual artist and inventor of the golden root poetic form. She is a recipient of the Bring Back The Prairies Award, Southern MN Poets Society Award, and several International Academy of Visual Arts and Hermes Creative Awards. Her poetry will be exhibited at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (2024-2025) and her work is published or forthcoming in Birdcoat Quarterly, Cider Press Review, Scarlet: A Literary Journal, The Ekphrastic Review, The Fourth River, The Hopper, Waxwing, and elsewhere.
Image: “3 Beds 2 Baths House Troy NY 2” from The Facebook Marketplace Collection
Pine Hills Review 