In the Museum of Your Last Day

In the Museum of Your Last Day

 
Tangled sheets,
but no pillow.

A storage basket with broken binders
and unopened packages of lined paper.

The pencil case you fill every September
but never use.

Your dress shoes,
upside down by the closet.

Folded paper squares
rain weed when I open them.

A worn backpack that belongs to Thomas
who doesn’t want his parents to find his bong.

Scraps of the Vonnegut biography
I bought for you. Benign remnant of your rage.

Empty boxes of pizza pops.
Socks rolled like potato bugs.

The clothes you didn’t stuff into that duffel bag.
The winter jacket you didn’t know you might still need in April.

Ashes along the windowsill.
A burn mark on the wall beneath it.

The screen you removed so you can climb onto the roof.
High, sleepless.

Most of this I empty into several garbage bags
the first day you are gone.

The rest I leave. Intend, some time, to set right.
After your true last day. If we ever learn when that is.

Man Alone by Anya Holloway

Man Alone by Anya Holloway

By Susie Berg | Issue 6 (2015): Extraordinary | |

About Susie Berg

Susie Berg is the co-curator of the Plasticine Poetry Reading Series. She is the author of the poetry collection, How to Get Over Yourself (Piquant Press, 2013), the chapbook Paper Cuts (CreativeJames Press, 2007), and the blog The Starbucks Poetry Project. Her work has appeared in such journals as carte blanche, Arts Medica, Misunderstandings Magazine, and Switchback, and in the anthologies The Mom Egg Review, Desperately Seeking Susans, and Body and Soul. She is a graduate of the summer writing programs at Humber College (2004, working with Olive Senior) and St. Francis Xavier (2006, working with Anne Simpson and 2007, working with Jeanette Lynes). Forthcoming are two chapbooks:You Will Still Have Birds, a conversation in poetry with Elana Wolff from Lyrical Myrical Press, and Awaiting Butterflies from words(on)pages press. She is also editing an anthology for Oolichan Books to be released in 2016. Visit her online or follow her @SusieDBerg on Twitter.

About Anya Holloway

Anya Holloway lived in Ontario before moving to the Maritimes to paint. She has been involved in art for most of her life, studying art and architecture throughout her high school years and earning a degree in Graphic Arts. In 2008, she opened the doors to her gallery in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia. Having a strong belief in the art education of our youth, she teaches painting and art history to children ages 9-17. Her work is held in private collections throughout the globe, including Canada, USA, Japan, China, Europe, Australia and the UK. Please see more of Anya’s work on her gallery site, blog, and on Facebook.

2 thoughts on “In the Museum of Your Last Day”

  1. Claire

    I have been here – with a daughter, not a son – but the ache, the worry, and the surreal feelings are likely the same. I never had the courage to take those feelings into poetry.

    Reply ↓
    1. Susie Berg

      Thanks, Claire, for having the courage to respond here. I wish you strength.

      Reply ↓

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