She laughs in the moment.

As the key slots into the door,

the soft click meeting her every time.

The beige cat in the window blinks lazily,

once catching sight of her,

and then her new companion beside her,

hops from the curtain to greet them.

There’s conversations only the door hears;

the keylock so used to its role as sentinel,

wedging a barrier between strangers and friends.

It observes so much— the first kiss still ruminating, a hand propelling the handle, frozen in motion.

The door, years prior, when it was open and closed for the first time, breaking that seal of infancy, imprinting new arrivals on the laminate floors.

And today.

That day, where’s there’s no pouring rain,

Or storm on the horizon

No foreboding message.

Letting her know today

wasn’t just one to chuckle at from the tarot cards,

Or look away when her friends tried to talk to her,

Or seek the fates for advice.

Laminate floors creaking beneath her heels;

The only sound within the hallway.

She’s left with her thoughts,

torrenting her emotions,

sending the captain overboard.

The key they’d given her still fit the lock,

but in this bubbling silence,

in this frozen tension,

it no longer felt like home.