when this house was standing

by Stephen Brown

A fence is erected. The dirt path connecting our home to the creek fills in with leafy chaos. Networks of a thousand metal gleams show us freedom we children once had.

But this cannot stop us from leaving.

Drumming the links produces happy kitchen sounds, forks and spoons, while locusts simulate the laughter. Our heated debates replaced now by the catbird’s sirens.

Inside, there is no one to grit the fabric on the couch, or borrow without asking. Carpeted lanes of traffic collect dust. A death-curled spider occupies the neglect-formed crack.

I am satisfied with the crumbling.

Stephen Brown (he/him) is a writer-activist with a Philly attitude and a background in LGBT+ studies. His fiction and poetry have appeared in The Queer Gaze, Tofu Ink Press, SCAB, Beneath the Soil, Querencia Press, Wicked Gay Ways, and others. Stephen's debut chapbook, His Boyfriend Materials, is available now from Bottlecap Press.