LITERARY: "Skeletons in Our Closets" by: Erica G. Ildefonso

Classification: Poetry

Theme: Retrospection

Synopsis: Who are we behind closed doors and shuttered windows?

I.

Tonight, the moon failed to console me.

I saw it heaved a sigh and bid me goodbye;

As it became jaded with my bottled-up cries,

And pensive thoughts on the past long withered.

Like every other night,

My mind mused on that place.

Its four corners provided me shelter,

And warmth on rainy days.

I remembered its patriarch—he was a good man.

He took pride in not having his cheeks flushed,

Or his mouth blowing smokes—

He said his only addiction was working.

As plain as the pikestaff, indeed.

It was etched on his knuckles growing as dark

as the bags under his bloodshot eyes

from working to morn until night.

I remembered the woman cradling me to slumber,

Ruffling my hair with her trembling hands.

She said she would look after me

Until her knees would go flimsy.

I remembered my playmate,

His mien was slovenly.

From eviscerating my dolls—

A display of his inherited temper.

II.

Tonight, like every other night,

My mind mused on that place

Whose four corners made me cower;

In horror, in shame.

I remembered its patriarch—

I dared say he was a good man.

He took pride in not wasting his life away to vices,

And yet the drunkards seemed soberer than him.

When his knuckles were bruised

From punching the wall,

When his eyes were bloodshot

From seething anger.

I remembered the woman cradling me to sleep,

Her gentle fumbling turned into a grip.

She said she would always resent me,

Because I bore the same face as my father.

I remembered my old playmate

Whose disposition I had witnessed.

Morphed into the monster,

He loathed since he was young.

III.

Tonight, the moon cried with me.

I saw its craters brimmed with sympathy,

As it listened to my grievances

And tirades on the past long withered.

Just like every other night,

My mind mused on the place I ought to call “home”.

But to me, it was just four faces,

Foreign to one another.

Photo by: Jericho E. Mendez

Published by: Jan Yeasha Mendez

Date published: February 8, 2022

Time published: 5:12 PM