by Isabella Marx

“Sometimes living in two places at once caused me to feel as though I did not live anywhere because no one ever knew where I was.”

Okay, Mimosa (Lara Mimosa’s Thresholes is the scaffolding of this work; all poetry lines are from her unless stated otherwise) . Let me one up you.

Let me do you one better

Baghdad, Iraq (house- big)

Hadeetha, Iraq (house- big)

It was as if I were a snake and I had two skins.

Amman, Jordan (hotel)

Wind comes up, move to another town

ain’t nobody gonna stick around. (Eurydice, Hadestown)

Amman, Jordan (apartment- ant castle)

Amman, Jordan (apartment- rosemary bushes)

“I” was stranded

Aspen Creek, Broomfield, Colorado

between two sentences.

Deer Crest, Broomfield, Colorado

Inside my thought is always a second thought, an afterwards to where I originally was.

In this way, a parenthetical helps me occupy

Westminster, Colorado (house 1)

two places at once

Westminster, Colorado (house 2- basement)

(two times at once)

Salida Way, Aurora, Colorado

I took the shape of what was asked of me

Sable Blvd, Aurora, Colorado

like a wave that carries the garbage leeward upon the shore

Jewell Ave, Aurora, Colorado

Tell me if you’ve heard this one before

Lansing, Michigan (apartment)

Lansing, Michigan (Air BnB)

Unstructured by my own repetitions:

San Antonio, Texas (house- closet)

my fist has always been

San Antonio, Texas (apartment- closet)

clenched around the handle

San Antonio, Texas (Air BnB)

of an invisible suitcase

San Antonio, Texas (Air BnB)

i am always ready to leave

San Antonio, Texas (hotel)

life is happening in a gathering

San Antonio, Texas (inn)

i am not invited to (fatima aamer bilal)

San Antonio, Texas (apartment)

I move forward but not of my own accord

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

The open suitcase—is it a coffin or a boat?

San Antonio, Texas (apartment)

What if all that’s left of me

San Antonio, Texas (apartment)

are the holes?

Chicago, Illinois (hotel)

What more do you need to know

Chicago, Illinois (AirBnB)

other than I lived,

Chicago, Illinois (hotel)

that I was born?

Chicago, Illinois (apartment)

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Isabella Marx is currently pursuing a Master’s in Literature at Northeastern Illinois University. Her writing is interested in exploring the world through the lens of immigration, feminism, and anti-capitalism. Whether fiction, nonfiction, or poetry, her focus is on narratives and personal experiences. When not writing, she is likely reading, playing with her cat, or both.