Tiny Little Suitcases

You were so nice it jawed my jugular and has yet to let go.

Eating ice cream with you makes me suspicious.

Your beard has taken up residency in the upper left ventricle of my heart.

A nest of finches in your beard.

A small colony of mites in the feathers of the finches.

I want to hang a No Vacancy sign on my chest.

Edie Rylander’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in Thick Jam, Crack the Spine Literary Magazine, Black Heart Magazine, Nailed Magazine, and Gobshite Quarterly. She studies word crafting at Portland State University, and is a co-editor for the online literary press, The Gravity of the Thing.