MONICA KOENIG

Hyperphagia


I have knelt at
the roadside taking it
into my mouth
           the poisonous sumac
           beating my lungs
           together as wings.

           What if I come 
           to a stand of pines.
                       There is a bear
                       made of the faces
                       of every man I’ve known.

The bear can give me anything
I want but all I can have
is a skeleton made of trees
the lungs sunk
           meadow grass flat
           from a bedded down 
           animal.

  

163  The Paris-American

Monica Koenig holds an MFA from the University of Colorado. Her poems have appeared in the Tulane Review and Roar Magazine. Monica lives, writes, and works in the high Rockies.  

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  Next week's poet:

 Marcelo CastilloJJCCCACc