The Center of My House is a Closet

by Jackie Domenus

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I’ve heard the safest place
to be in a lightning storm
is in a car, where rubber

kisses the pavement,
rolls over concrete,
carries a metal frame

like baggage, like a war wound.
I’ve heard to stay away from windows
during a hurricane

lest the glass shatters
and the outside world
suddenly comes pouring in

unwelcomed, unwanted.
I’ve heard that when a tornado
hits, it’s best to be

in the very middle of your home—
the strongest part of the structure,
the heart of it all.

How ironic then,
that the center of my house is a closet.
That in high winds, I must hide

in the same place
I stood shaking all my life,
watching as walls are torn

down around me
A cyclone swirl, swallowing space
until there’s nothing left

but me and the doors.

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Jackie Domenus is a queer writer and educator from New Jersey. A graduate of the 2021 Tin House Winter Workshop, her essays have appeared or are forthcoming in Entropy, Watershed Review, Philadelphia Stories, and HerStry. She recently earned her MA in Writing at Rowan University. You can find her on Twitter @jackiedwrites.