Founded in the fall of 1991, Laurel Moon is Brandeis' oldest, national literary publication. Each issue we publish features original work from undergraduate students.
In the open window you cannot leave from,
sits the cat with a misleading purr staring upon
the Chinese Checker lawn.
In this house, we have no funerals.
But here! look closely, the sunlight reveals the corners crowded
with this entanglement of debris,
and above, there is a fixture
of a hundred mirrors,
shaped like droplets
in the tub that never dries.
Do you see him?
The man crouches on the floor, chiseling rotting wood:
carving the names with a key (and guarding them like a secret).
He sits beyond your senses,
reserving a piece of himself for a home.
Go on
push the door with the broken knob towards the vast murmurs.
Unreliable gravestones will not deceive you.
When brushing upon the Mica, expect it to crumble.
Claire Wilgus is an undergraduate student studying English at New York University. Working as a research assistant, she has been most inspired by the work of Marianne Moore, T.S Eliot, and Derek Walcott. She has lived in New York for two years with her dog, Emma.