By Michelle Brooks
I tell you, I didn’t know
it would be like this, the past
a fever dream of endless days
that led to this version of myself,
a haunted house that I dare not
enter. I am what happens after
you break the glass in case
of an emergency. I am the thing
you bought, the one you imagine
you couldn’t live without it until
its possibility morphs into reproach.
You aren’t the only one who
keeps something because you
don’t know what to do with it.
About Michelle Brooks
Michelle Brooks has published a collection of poetry, Make Yourself Small, (Backwaters Press), and a novella, Dead Girl, Live Boy, (Storylandia Press). Her poetry collection, Pretty in A Hard Way, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2019. Her collection, The Pretend Life, was published by Atmosphere Press in February 2020. A native Texan, she has spent much of her adult life in Detroit.