The Devil comes with a bag of arsenic to sprinkle in the cracks
around the door. No one can come in or come out, everyone
is trapped. If you were to take a picture of the world outside
the window, the children playing outside, the birds singing on the line
the women hanging and folding their wet and dry laundry
you might be tempted to press your lips against the line of white powder
inhale and swallow the dry poison with the knowledge
that even a convulsive death is better than exposing the members of this house
to sunshine. Even the Devil doesn’t want us to go outside:
this line of arsenic is a warning sign to those who might come inside
a deal with God to keep all the little secrets in here from coming out.
~Holly Day
Minneapolis, MN, USA