My Brother’s Closet

I never looked in my brother’s closet.
I don’t remember where it was.
I wouldn’t have looked in it anyway.

It was somewhere in the small room
he slept in - off the living room,
the side porch - and the bathroom.

His room was really like a closet,
but with three doors.
The bathroom had three doors too.

When I went to pee or take a bath
I had to lock each one,
especially my brother’s.

I don’t remember
where his closet was,
but he kept mean things in it.

-Esther Altshul Helfgott