Tonight's Poet Corner: The Open Suitcase

The Open Suitcase
by Belinda Roddie

breathing before dying
is a daunting
task when all you have
is a pack of stationery

two pens
and a

Christmas card from a runaway mother
who kissed you
too tenderly
with salt

the scrapbook
you had when you were
three feet high
a pair of stained glass sneakers
watercolor waistcoat
and a watch

that has never told time
and yet
somehow

this leather doppelganger
of your past exploits
boasts of a brand new era
of diner conversations

stale coffee cups
and a tin can
oozing molasses
on the beaten railroad tracks

it's almost as if the shoe prints
form a face
as you zip up the body bag
and close your mind
to the smell