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| SID GOMEZ HILDAWA |
| How to be a Door |
| THE AUTHOR HOLDS THE COPYRIGHT TO THIS POEM. THIS IS POSTED WITH PERMISSION FROM THE AUTHOR. |
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| Hinge your life on something as steadfast as a jamb but know which way to swing. (Those who swing both ways belong between the dining hall and the kitchen.) Hold your breath when you are locked, inhale deeply with every knock that isn't answered with "come in." Be still when there is no reply from the innkeeper of all things. Your name is Portal so with your body keep out sickness and greed, and builders who do not know how to hammer a house with quiet words. Let sorrow pass, and youth, and the goldest giraffe who bends low to nibble from a lady's hand, that all may enter who have traveled worlds to be astonished, weary now of boulevards that look out to the sea but never wave, finally stepping in, leaving shoes outside and shaking hands with all they meet inside, all who have come before them, all who must dwell. This poem is part of the collection that won Second Prize for Poetry in the 2006 Palanca Awards |