HANNAH PELLETIER 

BASEMENT

My only wish is not

for my

dead brother to come back,

but for the basement

to just stop flooding every spring—

Each time the rain lasts

longer

than a day or

two

I slip on his boots and

all the way

down the dark

stairs, I can

hear him complaining

in the wet basement —

I always reply to him

in the unfinished dark:

He is not the one

who has to mop up

this mess

mother nature has spilled all

over the floors while

he was sleeping—

Hannah Pelletier studied English at the University of New Hampshire where she received the Richard M. Ford writing award two years in a row. Her work has been published in The Paragon Journal. Hannah is a 23 year old expat currently living in Nancy, France.