Are You Staying? by Lois Perch Villemaire
Your suitcase is sitting on the stairs
halfway up, halfway down,
worn to the color
of wheat waving in the field.
Is it filled with your belongings
clothes folded dreams packed away
with your toothbrush, bathrobe, shoes,
the book you were reading?
Your suitcase is sitting on the stairs
Is it heavy with sadness,
will you soon grab the handle,
walk out the front door?
Or is it empty and bare,
light as air, waiting there
to be stored in the basement.
Lois Perch Villemaire resides in Annapolis, MD. Her stories, memoir flash, and poetry have been published in such places as One Art: A Journal of Poetry, Ekphrastic Review, The RavensPerch, Trouvaille Review, FewerThan500, The Drabble, Pen In Hand, and Flora Fiction. Her poems have been included in a number of anthologies. She was a finalist in the 2021 Prime Number Magazine Award for Poetry.