Head pounding, his words repeated in my head like a broken record
my mind and i
are at a game of hide and seek
only i think i've gotten the rules wrong
i am both
the hider
and the seeker
the hider says”if you don’t kill yourself the seeker will”
forever searching for her
but terrified of being seen
We all have skeletons, rattling bones,
Hidden in closets, behind locked tones.
Don’t sit and act like you’re pure, divine,
Your shadows whisper, just like mine.
A love once lost, a lie once told,
A friendship broken, a heart gone cold.
The debt unpaid, the midnight tears,
The silent battles, the buried fears.
Regrets of words we never spoke,
Promises shattered, trust we broke.
The secret crush, the stolen glance,
The guilty thought, the missed chance.
We hide addictions, shame, desire,
The envy burning, the quiet fire.
We mask mistakes with holy airs,
But closets creak — they all hold theirs.
So don’t pretend you’re stainless, whole,
We all have cracks inside the soul.
Skeletons dance, they never rest,
And truth beats loud within the chest.
There are skeletons in my closet:
Well, we all have some of those.
Everyone has secrets
They’d like to hide I suppose.
Most people’s hidden skeletons
Are minor ones, no doubt.
Just a bit embarrassing
If anyone found out.
Little indiscretions,
Committed long ago.
But things they’d really rather
Their family didn’t know.
But the bones that fill my closet
Are not a metaphor.
I have a pile of real ones
Littering the floor.
For I am Jack the Ripper,
A man of great renown.
Slaying ladies of the night
After dark in London Town.
And, until the police catch up with me,
I intend to keep on going.
Soon I’ll have to move house.
My closet’s overflowing.
Definition: programmed cell death/cellular suicide
in an attempt to remedy damaged components,
neatly shrinking and dismantling damaged parts.
A cognitive dissonant conscious
exists at a crossroads.
My mind fractures at the mere thought
of going back into the closet of deferred romantic pursuits,
even if hiding can ensure survival.
My dilemma encapsulates the quintessential concept of coming out.
Taking a step out of closeted comfortability
opens up the avenue for external toxicity,
while retreating into latent potential is
unintentional self-immolation.
on the edge of what—
you balance it like a rumor,
bitter-totter, back-n-forth,
a tightrope strung through your ribs.
step careful, suga.
this ain’t a floor, it’s a dare.
a rope in a loop,
loop in a thought,
thought chewing its own tail
like it forgot how to end.
uncertain the length—
baby, that’s the trick.
they never tell you how far it goes,
just whisper keep going
like that’s mercy.
same concept, different color—
revolving doors painted holy,
but they still spin you nowhere.
no exit.
one entrance.
cute, right?
trapped in a loop—
spin, spin suga,
til your name sounds like static
and your shadow gets dizzy trying to keep up.
might as well sit awhile,
kick your heels against the air,
laugh at the damn absurdity of it—
because look at you,
dancing in a cage you can’t even see.
spin the bottle—
you or them?
fate don’t care, it just points.
they aren’t trapped, they said.
you believed that?
sweet thing.
did you see that—
the door half-cracked,
fur brushing your knuckles,
a cold breath slipping out like a secret?
closet humming like a heartbeat.
Narnia, baby.
or madness.
honestly?
same damn door.
This old house is a mystery,
it is filled with lots of history.
It needs to be cleaned out,
now what are we going to talk about?
Let's go to the big closet,
mom made this her big bank deposit.
Look a very old dusty shoebox,
wow!!! is it Ralph our pet blue fox?
My closet is a drag queen, full of designs; vibrant color.
reds, purples, oranges, pink, turquoise, green, silver and plum
nothing at all like closet of my mother
hers was filled with blues, tan, gray, all colors glum
whereas my clothes feature designs, patterns and cartoons
hers were blah, dour, bland, under-decorated, dull as white loons.
My house is like my closet, full of fluorescent greens, reds and pink.
My mother is gone now, still I know what this would make her think.
it grows at midnight—
a patchy mayday
through dry-cleaned silk suits
of murmuring bones
whose eerie gossip
circles the armoire.
burying her face while counting wool,
each, an empty silhouette
in young hands that hold like old —
her shadow instead of dress falls
each, an empty silhouette
the bones that burst apart come back —
her shadow instead of dress falls,
a little girl with safety pins in her glass
the bones that burst apart come back
in young hands that hold like old —
a little girl with safety pins in her glass,
burying her face while counting wool.
Sleeping inside three oak walls and a creaky double door
Is something that hasn't glimpsed the sun
Since I first hid it from my pupils.
I've taken great care in decorating the sides of the wardrobe
With carvings of flowers and horses,
And everything else one would expect
From an old closet such as it.
I've stacked my plump balls of mismatched yarn
On the tippy top of its dusty roof,
so that when people ask me why I have such an old closet
In my new room, I can tell them it's for storage.
I've also locked the door with a little something I call
Omission and deflection, two very useful tools
I keep in the tool box under my bed,
Also not in view of any shafts of light that may trespass
Into the room through the bedroom window.
Choosing integrity at all cost
Daring to expose her truth no matter what
Guts and courage to spare
Wordku: 5-7-5 words
AP: Honorable Mention 2025
I heard a small sneeze from my closet
knew it was the gremlin who hides in there
he is usually more cautious, silent but deadly
another sneeze; he must be sick
I got out my Vicks and my Therma flu
grabbed him by the ears and dragged him out
he was horrified, thinking he had been a secret
think again buddy, I was a mother once
he was kicking, biting and scratching me
I barely felt it, due to his small size and tiny teeth
cut it out, I told him I am trying to save your life
he does not speak English, a whisper said
I looked up and saw yellow eyes
It was a vampire bat
Just another monster living in my closet
I did not even know about this one
I pushed the gremlin and Vicks back in and slammed the door
what about that Therma Flu asked the bat?
Crap. An intelligent vampire bat.
There really are monsters in my closet!
a tiger crept into my closet today
it happened at three pm. while I was away
she was silent but hungry, wanting some meat
messed up my closet, put two shoes on her feet
I woke up at a quarter past two
saw her stealing my tennis shoes blue
shut my eyes tight and pretended to sleep
did not make a sound, not even a peep
heard the creak of my refrigerator door
heard a neighbor scream and a loud roar
quickly ran down to lock my front door
this pesky neighbor shall bother me no more
My co-workers gave me money to buy clothes
I am speechless; they think I only own two shirts
They do not know I have a closet full of stuff
But that closet is bulging and there is a bogey man in it
That’s why I keep wearing these two shirts
Hiding Place
After the beatings your darkness was
my protection. My source of comfort
after the sexual assaults. Hanging clothes
were a curtain against the evil.
Blankets on the floor held me close
and secure. As a child you were my favorite
friend. My hiding place.
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