Displacement

by Melissa Sidlow

Chapter 1

There’s something strange
Where I’m at, how did I get here?
There’s a stillness, a wrong winter warmth in the air.
A sky that should never be clear.
What caused this change?

I start to walk.
The gravel roads begin to bend,
The rolling hills are shifting each short blink and stare—
A maze that I can’t comprehend,
The shadows mock.

I knew this town—
Not as it stands; like reflection.
I reach the end of the road, now the house sits there.
Warped in a different direction.
My world breaks down.

I cross the lawn
To step across the harsh beige grass.
Everything sits like an old memory now bare.
I touch the remnants of our glass.
My life is gone.

I glance inside.
A stranger’s living in my place.
In my stead, with the yellow scarf I always wear.
Am I met with a stolen face,
Left cast aside?