Cerebral removalists

by Lauren Nolan

Moving house is moving between
pockets of time and space
places frozen upon your departure
unchanging
so as not to disrupt the mental furniture
the people, they stay too
the neighbours, the café owners, the postman
forever living in a loop
where you left them – if you suddenly see them
out of context
such unease
a paradox that will alter the continuum
capsules of memory
petrified in time
floating around your mind-palace museum

Lauren Nolan is the author of upcoming poetry collection The Thread (due to be published in Jan 2023). She is working on her first novel regarding the mysticism of secret societies in the late 1800s. When she isn't writing, Lauren reads tarot cards and makes a killer strawberry jam.