This is my suitcase Reggie,
I will stuff him with
stilettos and sweatshirts
because I am going to Rome
and I need to be stylish
whilst eating gorgeous pasta
in front of the Pantheon.

Perhaps, in a crisis of joy
I will switch directions
because I always dreamed of waltzing
on a balmy Madagascar evening
under the constellation Hercules
in the arms of an actual Hercules .

Fortuitously finding myself
again at an airport,
I grind my teeth
watching Reggie glide away
on a conveyer belt
conceivably gone forever
lost in the deep, dark abyss
of the hell that is sometimes life.

Where I ultimately land
only time will tell
but if destiny permits
at the end of my personality
I will shine brilliantly
with the twinkling splendor of Norway’s Northern Lights
Reggie by my side,
well-worn and storied.

Linda Joy Walder