Self-portrait with Broom

Bradley Samore

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I sweep what is now
only my apartment.

Your curly hairs catch
in the bristles.

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Author’s Note: The scene in the poem never actually happened, but on multiple occasions, I've found a strand of someone's hair long after they've left, even after a deep cleaning of the space. In the poem, I imagine a speaker who has found a hair of someone who has either left a relationship or died. I wanted the imagery of the attempt to rid oneself of another's memory (the sweeping) yet the catching on the bristles to illustrate the complex feelings a loss can leave one with.

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Bio: Bradley Samore currently works as a technical writer. His poems have appeared in The Florida Review, Carve, The Dewdrop, and other publications. He is a winner of the Creative Writing Ink Poetry Prize. www.BradleySamore.com.