Solicited Poems by Kristin Abraham

Bigger than a Bread Box

A man who thinks

about awe, stops

to think, just a moment;

in the canyon, armadillos

scuttle by like bald little

men, everywhere on their

toes.  But he’s not thinking

about them, their shyness;

he’s looking for the negative

spaces, needing a little more.

God’s Country

In another version

she makes him put his boots

outside in the evening

to air; she has war fatigue

but is not fearful, just

sometimes it’s good to pray

she tells the baby’s small fists

at her lips.  It takes a lonely,

an angry person to live

on a mountain like this;

it becomes easier to mourn

people than to wait for them.

Hunt

To get out

of his constant slice

this house needs windows

                  

arrow—

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Bionote

Kristin Abraham is the author of two chapbooks:  Little Red Riding Hood Missed the Bus (Subito Press, 2008), and Orange Reminds You of Listening (Elixir Press, 2006); her full-length manuscript, The Disappearing Cowboy Trick, will be published by Horse Less Press in 2013. Additional poetry, lyric essays, and critical essays have appeared in such places as Best New Poets 2005, American Letters & Commentary, Rattle, Court Green, LIT, Columbia Poetry Review, and The Journal. She currently teaches English at Laramie County Community College in Cheyenne, WY, and is editor-in-chief and poetry editor of the literary journal Spittoon.

[Posted on 22 November 2012]