TWO POEMS

COLLEEN HARRIS

DECISIONS, DECISIONS

The rifle stands
in the corner
like a petulant child.
With my hand on the stock,
I feel the chill wind
of my father’s shadow.
When I look down the barrel,
I smell oil and relief.
The rifle is a younger
brother waiting to see
if he will hunt with
his sister, or bury her.

A Subdivision They Named Marehaven

The houses watched me
pull to a stop, lined up
like good soldiers ready
to march, ready to be sold.
The streets were named
for Derby-winning horses.
A large horse farm was sold
so these homes could be built.
When I step onto one lawn,
perfectly manicured grass
tugs at my ankle, asks where
the bees have gone, asks if
I have seen any hungering foals.

Colleen S. Harris earned her MFA in Writing from Spalding University. A three-time Pushcart Prize nominee, her poetry collections include The Light Becomes Us (Main Street Rag, forthcoming), Babylon Songs (First Bite Press, forthcoming), These Terrible Sacraments (Bellowing Ark, 2010; Doubleback, 2019), The Kentucky Vein (Punkin House, 2011), God in My Throat: The Lilith Poems (Bellowing Ark, 2009), and chapbooks That Reckless Sound and Some Assembly Required (Pork Belly Press, 2014).

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