Yellow Mama E zine

Baggage

by Otto Burnwell

 

You’re looking for a briefcase

something for the office.

You’re in among the luggage

of a big department store.

 

A cute young couple

browsing one aisle over,

seems a little strange,

as if she’s trying on each bag.

 

You watch him open large ones

and have her tuck inside,

curling up and squeezing

to check it for her size.

 

You wonder, should you warn her,

as they try another bag

to see if she will fit

and get the zipper closed.

 

Would it be too nosy

to ask her, with a smile,

what kind of trip she’s planning,

to travel in a suitcase?

 

She beams with adoration,

you believe it must be real,

that his winsome smiling

makes her a willing party.

 

He moves her hair and zips it,

then asks if she can breathe.

Her muffled voice assures him

she’s all comfy there inside.

 

Is it a game they play,

hoping to alarm you?

Or will you read next week

of a suitcase with a corpse?

 

 

“Baggage” originally appeared in the Winter 2020 issue of The Oddville Press.

 

Otto Burnwell still lives, works, and writes in the urban northeast nurturing a single-malt mentality against the craziness. His short fiction has appeared in Misery Tourism; Terror House Magazine; Horror, Sleaze, Trash; and Fiction on the Web. Verse works have appeared in The Stray Branch, the dearly departed, The Oddville Press, and Yellow Mama.

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Bernice Holtzman’s paintings and collages have appeared in shows at various venues in Manhattan, including the Back Fence in Greenwich Village, the Producer’s Club, the Black Door Gallery on W. 26th St., and one other place she can’t remember, but it was in a basement, and she was well received. She is the Assistant Art Director for Yellow Mama.