Open the Door

By Natasha Bredle

Part it.

Part the lock from the wedge. Hinge

from the wallpaper. Part it until

two halves don’t make a whole,

just a space where something

unneeded used to be.

Push it.

Don’t pull; don’t risk

getting held back. Hands are meant

to flatten, to press into something

malleable, if only to seek something

worth grasping onto for life.

Release

control of the life you’re grasping onto.

Your angle of sight slowly dissipates

as the wood swings shut without so much

as a whisper. You’d thought

it’d resist more.

If only

you’d known that magnificence

would end and begin with such

a simple command:

Open the door.

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Natasha Bredle is a young writer based in Ohio. Her work has been featured in publications such as Words and Whispers, Heat of Flesh Literary, and The Clay Jar Review. She has received accolades from the Bennington College Young Writers Awards as well the Adroit Prizes. In addition to poetry and short fiction, she has a passion for longer works and is currently drafting a young adult novel.