Reader Submissions
Well-Known Corners of the People
Masked
by
Neva Kastelic
His sister stands at a window
She watches a familiar scene
She’s in her seaside town. Her home
A yacht, a street emptied of people
Surely houses still stand nearby
their reflection reassures me
Where is a passer-by?
A kid, the neighbour. Any one?
1000 times familiar sights
Melt from peace into unease
Behind her, an empty room
bare floorboards, a painter’s easel
Soon her brother will enter
He will load his paintbrush blue
Mustachioed and masked
He will approach her
He will remove one window pane
He will unhinge her familiar
Then step back one metre.
Two.
(for Salvador Dali’s ‘Girl at a Window’ 1925, a print on my bedroom wall)