Innocence is Many Things (A Poem) by MaryAnn Ifeanacho

It is our empty house
Echoing our whispered dreams and moaning hopes
Like a child repeating his parent’s filthy words
With memories of you littered on the landing like toys,
It is the banister snaking between us,
Tugging at your crisp trousers
Begging you to stay a little longer,
It is your fingers not knowing
They’d be around my neck
As they strangled the doorknob,
It is the children next door,
Thinking the gargoyles on the parapet were
The only evil resident here
Innocence is many things,
It is me playing this game of fetch
Thinking one day, I’d catch your heart.

MaryAnn Ifeanacho is a Nigerian writer with a deep love for psychology, languages, film, and literature. She is a mom to the two most adorable cats in the world and a firm believer that bread is ambrosia. As she loves to tease apart the ordinary to find the extra within, her works are mostly magical realism. In her free time, she loves binge-watching oldies, working out, writing on her blog http://textamentswithanne.com and sharing high-octane memes.