MELTING MAN
by JAIDEN THOMPSON
Seattle snows now. I’ve changed too.
My heart beats slower sometimes.
I won’t say I was raised by fear,
but my shoulder shoot up at touch.
Stop. Don’t move. If you shake me,
I become something like a snowglobe,
my mind overcome by whiteness;
really, it’s darkness, no? Or
it has no name. Really, it isn’t real.
Isn’t that wonderful? You’re gone.
A man melting in the hall. God, the floors.
Wet again. It’s my week to mop.
Seems like every week now, but it’s fair.
I spill the most. I’m the most resistant
to bodies of water, yet also the most fluid.
I don’t mean to slip through fingers. Hold me?
Try. My housemate suggests Christmas decor.
Why? We’re not a home yet. Every morning,
construction wakes us.Outlets short-circuit.
The floor, always wet … Flooding. What is leaking?
Another complaint & conversation filed.
Anyways, Christmas eats your pockets.
Seriously, I have no pockets left. I’m still looking
for other spaces to store small secrets.
Last winter, this one slipped from my hand:
Hatred comes much quicker than Love,
but Love overstays her visit. Love owes me
20 years of rent, yet the heat stays on.
I plucked the secret up like a nasty weed,
finished a bottle of shitty vodka & stuck
the thing in there. See: a message
in a bottle, but without a receiver. I buried
under snow & stubborn dirt. The secret vanished
with the season. Maybe you returned &, upon finding me
gone, began digging for dead things. Well, was it breathing
in your calloused hands? Was it still true? Don’t tell me.
I have to believe that, one day, my mind will move on
from your haunted home. Here, the hardwood will soften
like dirt, taking in the melted man’s flood & pushing up
flowers of green, red and gold at last.
author pic here
Jaiden Thompson (they/them) is a Black queer poet and playwright from Seattle, WA. They have poems published in Diode Poetry, COUNTERCLOCK and Lumiere Review, among others. Their micro-chapbook, sympathy for the son, was published in Ghost City Press’ 2024 Summer Series. They are a winner of the 2023 VSA Playwright Discovery Award. Their one-act, Thank You, Eterntity!, was produced in Harper Joy Theatre’s 2026 One Act Play Festival.
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