I feel haunted by the incident:
Last Wednesday afternoon, two unknown men walked into our house.
My roommate was upstairs in her room, with her door closed.
Two unknown men made noise downstairs. They rifled.
They went into my room. I live on the bottom floor.
My roommate lay reading in bed. It sounded like an awful lot of noise.
She heard me or Virginia come up the stairs,
until someone opened her door without knocking. She knew we would not do that.
They locked eyes. He swore at her, then descended fast with jewelry.
He kicked over my guitar as he left,
she said to me as we sat together on the staircase.
She told me they definitely went into my room.
All the gaps in my room radiate a violence. Our house has bad air.
We speak from a deep place about the violation.
My roommate is at home with her parents.
For three days we must walk through the house, stunned,
and then we can start cleaning.