Mind's Aisles

The aisles thin

Growing dark and dank

Dust littered shelves

Broken fragments

Books without spines

Half torn titles,

Loose pages flutter

Unsure of their place

In the categorized mess-

A piece of a plot

Still standing unsolved,

Loose characters fluttering by

Paper airplanes formed and tossed

Through air to stick or crash

Upon the shelves

Among thick volumes

And thin typed chapters

With their endings torn to shreds

To be used as confetti

When one of their brethren is found

Remembered and stored

In a location suddenly obvious

To a mind left wandering

Aisles they created

To make sense of a formed disaster

Years in the making-

Momentarily paused

As reflection stares back

With creased forehead

And studious eyes,

Clenched lips and fidgeting fingers-

That suddenly reach and grip

The sides of the mirror,

Pry from wall

With broken nails-

And store it upon the shelf

Behind a line of books

Never to be read-

Hoped to burn.

Katrina Thornley is a nature poet. novelist, and freelance journalist that resides in Rhode Island. She has two poetry collections currently published, a novel, as well as a short story anthology. Her poetry collections "Arcadians: Lullaby in Nature" and "Arcadians: Wooden Mystics" were inspired by a local park and life in her small rural town. You can find them on Amazon now!

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