Hollowing by Catherine Zickgraf

Sleet tapping glass 

unsealed a manor, shattered out bubbles,

and mixed wind within window openings.  

A widow has crocheted yarn around wire 

hangers.  They rock now in empty closets.  

Above rusted curtain rods, a socket swings 

bulbless where hands unswitched the light. 

She tries to escape her paperweight, though

most folks will glow then blow away—her 

shadows still walk the halls in the evenings.

Breath sweeps up the dust. Seasons chisel 

paint like peeling pages, like leaves falling 

from her wooden walls.

Catherine Zickgraf’s main jobs are to hang out with her family and write poetry. Her work has appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Pank, Victorian Violet Press and The Grief Diaries. Her recent chapbook, Soul Full of Eye, is published through Aldrich Press. 

Read and watch her at caththegreat.blogspot.com