Like a Totem
Too Much Alliteration in the Last Stanza.
A while back, Fevers of the Mind published two of my poems. One was “San Diego” from the inaugural issue of Sledgehammer Lit and my chapbook, Abandoned Accounts. The other was a new one called “Like a Totem” that I wanted to share with you here:
A distant point of light
Filling your hopeless quota
With memories you had forgotten
And habits you didn’t know you had.
A search party for a souvenir;
A gang from a faraway street
Running you in from outside,
Your wheels wound with worry.
A room so quiet you could hear the walls itch;
A song stuck in your head like mud;
A girl staring at you with eyes so dark
They could swallow you whole.
Startled by your arrival,
She hides her idols in a dollhouse,
A rival altar in miniature
Inside a room next to the room.
You knew you wouldn’t wake up
Before all your ghosts had gathered
On the corner of your quilt
Gripped tight like a totem. 
Abandoned Accounts includes a bunch of silly memories I started writing down in poem form, reflections of walks in the woods at my parents’ house in the hinterlands of southeast Alabama, encounters with favorite bands and somewhat famous people, tales of travel and intrigue, and a few stray poems from as far back as 1990.
Here’s an interview with me about the book upon its one-year anniversary with fellow poet, the brutally beautiful, HLR.
And here’s a taste: the great Scott Cumming reading “Virga” from Abandoned Accounts:
It’s a fun little book of verse. Get a pretty blue paperback for $7.99 or the Kindle version for only $3.99!
As always, thank you for reading,
-royc.
http://roychristopher.com