Vacancy

Tak Erzinger

Betrayed in a borrowed house

she said, “I’ve lost my mind.”

She drifts into song

lyrics echo from childhood

she holds still, in a room, calling

for sisters long gone

nameless strangers, children, visit

sometimes taking her hand

there’s a hole in her memory

and a void in her eyes.

She wants someone to take her home

but her memory is unforgiving.

Youth arrives, an attendant, bringing

sunshine, fresh cut grass and summer

first love returns in a dream, not the

young man who pushes her through the garden

and her nurse hums, “Sail away ladies”

as her life blurs

against the window pain.

TAK Erzinger is an American/Swiss poet and artist with a Colombian background. She lived many years in Fells Point. Her forthcoming book “At the Foot of the Mountain” is being published by Floricanto Press, California. Follow her on Instagram: takerzinger and Twitter: Erztak.