Breakdown in April

Alone in my bedroom, I sob,

and the wardrobe steps forward,

like a coffin-mother, to embrace me.

Later, standing at the back door,

a coyote crosses my vision

on a wave of snow. This

is intimacy: once, in a supermarket,

you slid up behind me,

covered my eyes, and said, guess who?

Did I recognize your touch or your voice?

I sleep with the windows open

and the rain climbs into my bed

like a lover, naked beneath the quilt.

I could roll over and wrap

my arms around the rain.

“Breakdown in April” first appeared in T wo Peach, Issue 2, February 2016.

Chloe Honum