Form

Maybe you forget the pointless hills.

And the horse that gulped down air in the one good year

of the excellence of its greed.

When his fingers were on me, I felt a violence

open called loving him back.

Which is to say, it’s a difficult place here, God.

Do you relate more to the dove or to the snake?

Would you rather be stupid or harmless?

Louise Mathias is the author of Lark Apprentice (chosen by Brenda
Hillman for the New Issues Poetry Prize), Above All Else, the
Trembling Resembles a Forest (chosen by Martha Ronk for the Burnside
Review Chapbook Contest) and The Traps, forthcoming from Four Way
Books in April 2013. She lives in Joshua Tree, California.