What can we tell
from these pictures on walls,
jars filled with glass candies wrapped
in paper that cuts?
What do we know of them
who left their secrets here
in plain sight of passersby?
The water-stained wall
the empty picture hook
the drawer full of broken glass
Listen and you can hear
the uneasiness of a life never quite
cleaned up or put away
asking only for quiet,
a place to be left alone
Perhaps if we sit and wait
these walls will spill open
to explain the sudden change
For now let us stop
and sit with
the mess we left
and contemplate ourselves
reflected back at us
in a broken mirror
This poem was first published in The WovenTale Press, June 2014.
©Daniel von der Embse
writing in airplanes 