A visitor knocked on my calloused door,
stranger with languished eyes.
Enamel decayed teeth, I plaster a smile
and let them in with the door ajar
Sweeping through the place in a surging tornado
Trail of unwashed dishes and cobweb filled cups
Pieces of myself decorate the ground
Rotting ash of passion and graveyard of dreams
Ruby gems laced around my wrist, cascade into liquid
A suffocating haze plagues my home
In the deafening silence, my hollow reflection
Mirrors the fragility of a dandelion
Numbing myself, I spiral down the staircase
that plummets into a boundless well
Yearning for a passerby to look in from the window
Close enough to discern through the cracked wall
Inside, the house is scorching in flames
that l cannot escape
The house is my head
and I am afraid
that the visitor might stay
Piece by Mahnlene Dela Peña
