Editor’s Choice

Telephone, 4 a.m.

    by Katherine DiBella Seluja

Wrapped in dark muslin night

sharp scream of ringing phone

his stumbling voice     gagging

emergency room     again

and you think

what if there were a box to keep him in

somewhere to store him away

to bring out with rainy weather

when each white square has its penciled letter

every puzzle piece its mate

then you would have time to listen

unravel every line

you'd be awake already

scooping vanilla chip ice cream

into your favorite blue porcelain bowl

the one with the crack that resembles

the shining scar on his forehead

how sharp that metal gutter

the night he flew from the roof

© 2013  Katherine DiBella Seluja

Katherine DiBella Seluja received degrees from Yale and Columbia University.  Her poems have appeared in New Mexico Poetry Review, Santa Fe Literature Review, and Sin Fronteras.  Her chapbook, After the Thread Unravels, was a finalist in the 2012 Bordighera Poetry Competition.   She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico and dreams in Siena.