What’s between the sheets, and what’s under the mattress. Covers pulled back, once warm. A face staring from a woodlooking frame. A window makes a wall breathe. Arms like wings unfolded, a swinging gate blown open; the catch? No latch. Adjusting the distance between touch and too much. Meals found or fixed, grubbed or given. A shawl brutally pinned by the White Queen. Always jam yesterday. Crayons make wax houses
out of pentagons. Flowers and hands start with circles: only one of them is beautiful when dried. Is it a room or a bed that makes it a shelter? A meal or a friend that makes it a home?
Alisa Golden works with words, ink, and fibers, and is the editor of Star 82 Review. She has taught writing, letterpress printing, and bookmaking around the San Francisco Bay Area. Her stories, poems, and artwork have been published in blink-ink, Split Rock Review, DIAGRAM, and Pedestal Magazine, among others, and she is the author of Making Handmade Books (Sterling/Lark). Her website: http://www.neverbook.com.
