Farah Marklevits - "God of Break-Ins"

One of today's submissions comes from Farah Marklevitz. Our community reading is THIS THURSDAY, at 7pm at Rozz Tox in Rock Island. Enjoy!

GOD OF BREAK-INS

Our windows slip from true,

latches stop locking one pane

to its other. Set against rain, cold,

some imagined invader, latches

let a breeze-sized draft through.

We set them anyway. As if our faith

is in a god of locks, and the chatter

of screenscape neighbors—garage

intruder, suspicious teens, man

staring/watching, approaching

houses, 2 males possibly more,

someone trying to, broken into—

means we have to live

in a bluelit neighborhood

of binary. Our house breaks its own safe—

joints pop, ceilings crack, settle away

from frame, into shifting foundation.

Meant to let in light, rectangles of overgrown

backyard perspective, one neighbor’s living

room and the other’s kitchen so close

we could lean out and shake, windows

pick their locks, jump rails, whine and

clatter. Conspire with

the material house

to say, break open.