The Second
By Vanessa Piccirilli
![Ruby Door -- Door 6](https://i0.wp.com/www.zomagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Ruby-Door-Door-6-615x500.jpg?resize=615%2C500)
Ruby Door — Door 6
He is a thousand noble beasts
inhumanely caged and crying out
in a space too small, even for himself –
In time
he developed a face
to look like mine
He developed a machine
to herd his wild thoughts into
a single line, but it only
clashed and clanged – a thousand cymbals
delirious and disjointed
I know there is a rhythm,
a pattern in the silence
in-between
But he lives in a house
full of matted fur
and strange blood,
he has faced
the brink of extinction –
and he is afraid
he won’t have time to know what lived in him
before it passes away
________________________
Vanessa Piccirilli is a graduate of Roger Williams University with a Master’s Degree in Clinical Psychology and a lifelong passion for poetry. “I am particularly inspired by the works of Matt Rasmussen and Richard Brautigan, but also love curling up and sipping tea with Emily Dickenson.” — Vanessa