Writing is a Little Door
after Susan Sontag
I imagine returning to the house.
Furniture is piled up in the rain—
the ideas that won’t fit.
Dreams can’t squeeze through every opening,
especially when they’re big,
or floral or velvet with high backs
and mismatched cushions,
bookshelves lined with longing,
soggy volumes—all those re-lived hours.
To write is to lie,
to know imperfect things,
to remember in unfashionable colours
like mimosa and chartreuse.
When I returned to visit
my mother asked me to label
each item with a name—
memories are arrows fired
from room to room.
I imagine the house boarded up,
the abandoned birds
screaming in their nests.
I imagine passionfruit left on the vines
to rot like words.
As I drive away, I look back at the house:
the windows and doors
are smaller than I remember.
Jane Frank is a poet, editor and academic living in Brisbane. Her collection Ghosts Struggle to Swim was published by Calanthe Press in 2023. Her work has been widely published in Australia and internationally. Find her work at facebook.com and www.calanthepress.com