White Cotton Pillowcase

Let me tell you a little, for a moment, about
how the stains of tears on white cotton
don’t come out with regular Tide,

how the dark navy streaks
stain the sheets and change that
lavender-clean to saline-worn.

Soul-blood red mixed with
long fluffy tiger stripes as a
kneading feline drinks the

salty droplets while they fall–
the words escape from your eyes,
he alone silently

bears witness to your story,
he alone can ease
the wound, the ceaselessly

running brook that flows
noiselessly despite your
best efforts to dam it.

Let me tell you, for a moment, about
how you can encapsulate eternity
in a twenty minute frame

while you’re trying your damndest,
hand-over-mouth, not to wake
the next room yet somehow

they seem to know, can count
to the second
the extent of the damage,

like a burst pipe in the garage,
except your breaking point
is a frozen voice

on the other end of a static-y line
a thousand miles away,
while the wind howls and

tree branches clatter against
the aluminum siding.

***

Samantha Knapp, an emerging poet from Hofstra University, graduated in May 2010 with a degree in English-Literature and Creative Writing.  She has been featured in the Hofstra literary magazine, Font, and on “Calliope’s Corner” radio program on the Hofstra radio station.  She has been on the Dean’s List or Provost’s List every semester and is planning on pursuing a career in academia or in entertainment law.  She’s been writing for over ten years and has seen major growth in her work, inspired mostly by the Classics, the Romantics, a broken heart, others’ substance abuse, Frank Biddart, Rosanna Warren, and her mentor, Phillis Levin.