From Part Four of Kristin Abraham’s book The Disappearing Cowboy Trick
The Disappearing Cowboy Trick
He’d felt it at birth—this wreck—he’d
predicted: our days stopping up
that slot in the sky. He’d felt it—that omen,
sun-beaten, that vision. His curse to bear witness,
to proselytize: They have a stink, these
bodies, full of nothings and nevers. They’re forged
out of woodsharps—our hands full, our eyes.
Less than dolls, he told us. Your hearts dull
dollars—dented dollars—poor flies. Thus, this ending,
this moment, this way to unfold; thus, it’s done:
quick as thought, our chalk teeth dissolve. Not one
spreads his wings, not one self expunged. Can’t
cogitate scapegrace, retelling or rapture—
mercy by now a million thumbs in our eyes.
—
This selection comes from Kristen Abraham’s book The Disappearing Cowboy Trick, available from Horse Less Press. Purchase your copy here!
Kristin Abraham was born and raised in Michigan. She currently lives in Fort Collins, Colorado, with her husband, three dogs, and two cats. She teaches English at a community college in Wyoming and serves as editor-in-chief and poetry editor for the literary journal Spittoon (www.spittoonmag.com).
T.A. Noonan is the author of several books and chapbooks, most recently four sparks fall: a novella (Chicago Center for Literature and Photography, 2013) and, with Erin Elizabeth Smith, Skate or Die (Dusie Kollektiv, 2014). Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Reunion: The Dallas Review, West Wind Review, Hobart, Ninth Letter, and Phoebe, among others. A weightlifter, crafter, priestess, and all-around woman of action, she serves as the Associate Editor of Sundress Publications, Founding Editor of Flaming Giblet Press, and Literary Arts Director for the Sundress Academy of the Arts.
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