Zachary Kluckman

Snow Fall on Haunted House

The image blurs. A television screen seeking
a signal. The old house with its gabled
roof collapsing. Ribs falling into a sigh of relief.
Hard to let go sometimes. The wooden doors hand
-carved. Nothing that lived
here ever knew a gentle touch. The old man
still searches for his bottle within. The bottle falling from
his hands became a shattered prism. Caught the firelight
as it flew into dark corners. The way he fell beside it. How his feet lost
their way in the wet. How he found the bottleneck
opening an exit he could not refuse. As you
could not refuse when your door admitted him.
How the shadows turned their heads.
The drink
always in his gut, the spirits called him home
that night. What would he do
if he found his last drink now. Remember,
a small voice whispers behind the curtain of lungs
where you have been held captive by his memory.
Remember what happened when he found
you. A palpable absence in the frigid
air. Steam escaping our lungs as we listen
to the silence growing around us.

Zachary Kluckman is a nationally ranked slam poet and 2x Pushcart Prize nominee with more than 100 poems in print worldwide. He was a Finalist for the 2023 Subnivean Poetry Award judged by Kazim Ali and is the 2012 winner of the Red Mountain Press National Poetry Prize. His newest collection,  Rearview Funhouse was published by Eyewear Publishing in 2023. Currently he is the festival Director for the Chicharra Poetry Slam Festival in Albuquerque., NM.