Contributor: Kristina England

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"If it were not for your guests all houses would be graves."
        -Kahlil Gibran

We were stagnant water, drain flies
collecting in our famished mouths

when she rang the doorbell,
car broken down at midnight,

long gray hair spilling from bun,
wrinkles creasing into a smile.

Too gloomy for a tow truck,
we let her sleep downstairs,

dragged ourselves to bed
until the baby began to cry.

Our bodies jerked like fish
stuck in the belly of a boat.

She ascended the steps,
nodded from the hallway,

then rocked baby to sleep
with a lullaby so pleasing

our minds poured out
all that mold and slime,

woke to tot laughing,
sitting upright in his crib,

soft click of the front door,
welcome mat wiped clean.


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Kristina England resides in Worcester, MA. Her poetry is published or forthcoming in Gargoyle, Haggard and Halloo, Strong Verse, and other magazines.