barred owls call to each other in the humid night
from rain-soaked wooden house frames
wind whistles through the white-curtained windows
causing creaking in the brand-new jointed floorboards
wind tunnel puzzle, manufactured and fused together
shell-like, sterile drywall chambers spiraling inwards and conjoining
a reverberating racket like tinnitus in the passageways
empty buildings, yet inhabited all the same
frail beings crossing thresholds back and forth frustrated and unfriendly
while all around the neighborhood springs up quickly like lab-grown fungi
a meadow mowed over dug up and buried requires revenge
angered guardians come back to claim their land
to chill to the bone with wispy voices and cool touch
to blight the grass-seed lawns and crack the fresh-laid concrete
skinny pale creatures slipping in and out the open windows
cryptids emerging white-eyed between fluttering curtains
we struggle to find home, scarred as we are
and this lot is tough ground to settle
Sarina Okrzesik is an emerging writer based in Chicagoland. She graduated with a BA in English from Elmhurst University. Her poetry has been featured in After Hours and MiddleWestern Voice (student publication). Her work explores themes of nostalgia, liminality, chaos, and resilience.
JMWW 