Lifting The Lid.

dreaming
of Oberon and Titania
on this warm midsummer night

in the empty house
the attic was full of rats
and ablaze with light

stepping carefully
around the marbles
scattered across the floor

on the table
a pack of cards
with jokers and aces missing

a bowl of nuts
a plate of crackers
a drawer of loose screws

the rocking chair
stilled
by sawing off its base

what was in the tin
old and battered
bulging from the inside

the picture on the lid
passive inert
it whispered

it smelled of bananas
and fluttered like
a captured bat

we would have been alright
If we hadn’t
looked inside

for when we did
out coiled worms
and maggots

and we couldn’t
get the lid
back on