Likewise, Here

Katherine Gaffney

Little barns, out in the flat, threaten
to melt, like sugar cubes. It is here
I wonder what is inside: crystallized

air or forgotten time, hemmed in
by weathered wood. A horse stands
out front the white barn and turns

the scene to tableau; she begs me
to capture. And it is, likewise, here
I wonder what is inside her: a foal

curled to wait for spring? A coffin
bone turned to plummet toward
hoof? Inside me is fear

for fragility, of wood and body,
of landscape turning to burst
at endeavors to stand fast.

Katherine Gaffney completed her MFA at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is currently working on her PhD at the University of Southern Mississippi. Her work has previously appeared or is forthcoming in jubilat, Harpur Palate, Mississippi Review, Meridian, and elsewhere. Her first chapbook, Once Read as Ruin, was published by Finishing Line Press.

© Variant Literature Inc 2021