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Make Room

Posted on May 21, 2014April 29, 2015 by Parallax-Online

I. Unearth

I cut an umbilical cord today. Plastic,
raw, weakly bound to an animal found
buried in my closet. Long ago

in a den, a taxidermist
foraged its seams for loot, wary
of sewing attachment. Thievery

turned to alchemy. I coddled the rabbit
on a leash, buttons to gold. Its belly
swelled with rainwater, bliss, later maggots.

II. Suspend

My bed’s canopy was a canvas. Violent foot paddles
launched a thousand upside-down ships, tufting waves
that fondled buckets of treasure.

Calmer seas invite grief. Pebbles for a game of hopscotch.
I catapult them through spilled milk; the sheet’s cerebral
film engulfs my wishes in three jumps.

III. Retreat

I built a shrine to her garden trestle on my bureau.
She harvests vines, I harvest dead flies. Our symbiosis
feeds off of order in pairs.

We share shut windows. Trapped pests
and leaves clonk the glass: prison inmates
surviving by the ebb of our dinner bell.

By Fiora Elbers-Tibbitts
A senior creative writing major at Walnut Hill School for the Arts.

What is Parallax?

Parallax is a premier high school student-edited literary magazine, featuring original fiction, non-fiction, poetry, plays and screenplays, as well as book reviews and author interviews. Edited by the Creative Writing Department at Idyllwild Arts Academy, the magazine accepts submissions from high school students worldwide. Read more.

Forthcoming

Interviews with Jane Wong and Eliot Triechel, and a wonderful new batch of stories and poems!

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Parallax 12 (2009)
Parallax 13 (2010)
Parallax 14 (2011)
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