what in the world
with a phrase from Gregory Orr’s “Untitled [You’re invited to visit]”
to nose around in the attic
is to be nine years old, alone in a space both cramped and unboundaried,
as unfamiliar and shadow-distorted as a dream, a world
foreign, possibly forbidden, secret-laden;
is to lift the lid of a dust-topped shoebox that shelters
creased pages of correspondence tied together with ribbon,
pages written years before the current reader’s own story began;
is to discover that one’s parents
have an inner life.
—dotty seiter
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detail from a larger painting; ink and watercolor pencil
on paper
Let’s Face It With Friends series
2025
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Notes about poem and art:
• One way to write a poem, as suggested by poet Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, is to choose a standout line from a poem, write it down, and begin there, crediting the original poet in your own poem. The phrase to nose around in the attic instantly evoked in me multiple images and sensory memories. I grabbed the tail of one such memory and started writing “what in the world.”
• The Friend Who Pickles was stashed away in the metaphorical attic of a neurographic drawing made three years ago, just waiting to be discovered by me!
dottyseiter: now playing 
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