Room at the Top<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Lydia Shultan has invisible friends, whose names all begin with J.
\nThey live in the attic of her parents\u2019 house
\nand stick together under the northeast eave.
\nShe holds court sitting Indian-style on her aunt\u2019s footlocker.<\/p>\n
Lydia Shultan has an imagination like grass.
\nFast growing and self-fertilized, with an occasional blow-able dandelion.
\nHer parents feel compelled to mow it back now and then,
\ndisregarding her atmosphere.<\/p>\n
Lydia Shultan creates a play where her box turtles are the actors.
\nShe names one Charlie Chaplin, because of course it has to be a silent play.
\nFor the score she plays her only piano piece, \u201cMerry Roses.\u201d
\nThe blank-eyed turtles forget to take a bow.<\/p>\n
Lydia Shultan isn\u2019t going to get any brothers and sisters.
\nShe\u2019ll have to settle for the attic friends, who tend to be catty
\nand are unnaturally blonde, and the girls wear nylons instead of knee-highs.
\nSometimes they run around the attic naked, so Lydia does, and it feels like flying.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Martha Clarkson<\/a> manages corporate workplace design in Seattle. Her poetry and fiction can be found in monkeybicycle6,<\/a> Clackamas Literary Review, Seattle Review,<\/a> Portland Review, elimae,\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Nimrod.<\/em> She is a recipient of a Washington Poets Association <\/a>William Stafford prize 2005, a Pushcart Nomination, and is listed under \u201cNotable Stories,\u201d Best American Non-Required Reading for 2007 and 2009. \u00a0She lives in Kirkland.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Room at the Top Lydia Shultan has invisible friends, whose names all begin with J. They live in the attic of her parents\u2019 house and stick together under the northeast eave. She holds court sitting Indian-style on her aunt\u2019s … Continue reading