Her Skeleton is the Closet

by Mia Pearson-Loomis

Build a home to run away from in the space between my arms.
See when you return if it stays exactly how you left it.
Mail scattered on the table.
Your vape beside car keys.
On the kitchen counter, one
Pretentiously engraved leather koozie.
The shower drain holds my hair
All tangled up with yours,
Holds us how I held
The monster crouched behind your coats.
My skeleton is the closet for your secrets.
My breast, the pillow where you cried.

Mia Pearson-Loomis is an emerging poet living in Knoxville, Tennessee, where she was born and raised. She is descended from a long line of Tennesseans, dating back to the 1800s. Her work draws connections between a present identity and familial past that at first glance appear to be in direct opposition. In addition to telling her own story, she tells the story of modern-day Tennessee via freeform odes to the people she has met throughout her almost 30 years of living in Knoxville. She has self-published two e-books and has had poetry featured in Deep South Magazine and The Pigeon Parade Quarterly. You can keep up with her on her website.