Like a Totem

A distant point of light

Filling your hopeless quota

With memories you had forgotten

And habits you didn’t know you had.

A search party for a souvenir;

A gang from a faraway street

Running you in from outside,

Your wheels wound with worry.

A room so quiet you could hear the walls itch;

A song stuck in your head like mud;

A girl staring at you with eyes so dark

They could swallow you whole.

Startled by your arrival

She hides her idols in a dollhouse,

A rival altar in miniature

Inside a room next to the room.

You knew you wouldn’t wake up

Before all your ghosts had gathered

On the corner of your quilt

Gripped tight like a totem.