THREE POEMS by Shannon Elizabeth Hardwick
ISADORE—THERE IS A DOOR SOMEWHERE
paused in the breath of a thousand
horses where we wait for light
to catch our arms, bodies into nets,
golden sea flecked with ravens’
wings. Dear, I want to fly as quick as I can
into a canyon, leap hard into your
eyelids—how they never formed
enough to open—I will wait, still.
In this dream we circle you
in prayer and open any body willing
to be demolished in your name.
FRANCINE IMAGINES A JURY OF TWELVE WOMEN AT HER FUNERAL
Francine tastes the first words at sunrise, splits the verdict between them: her accuser at one end of the table, her Father at the other. I have guns of forgiveness for both of them, she writes. To Francine, forgiveness is a weapon for the last day she will be alive. To slice the throats of my accusers with kindness, a warm waterlike love washing us slick, she writes, in artichoke blood.
HOW BEGINNINGS ARE MADE
How the hay hobbled on
the mule-backs toward ice
caps covered with the unborn
on blankets beneath the one
star, beating-hearth, mother,
her snow watch, warming—
how before-children wanted
to see the one who loved
their bodies until she broke
herself open—how, off course,
mules moved holy hay, making
prints, perfect O’s, hooves
above the tree-line, to feed
the birth-sick their sight, source.
- Published in Series
BOY IN A FIELD by Shannon Elizabeth Hardwick
Boy in a field understand The lame
Hearted go to him mouth filled
Broken He brings the horses
Of his grandfather His hands wheat
Heavy I have seen him Monster himself
With river-sickness and a girl His mother
Maybe as a girl It is hard to say
Her story Tell it He is afraid The lame
Hurt too Hearts in the coal filled even
The horses’ lungs He will bring them
I have seen him afraid of himself
His river-sickness Bring him
Horses Tell her story The girl broke
His wheat-heart It is hard to say Why
He is afraid Maybe a girl hurt too
Go mouth filled Black lung-wings
He will bring the lame I have seen
Him monster himself I understand
Why Tell him I love Bring him
Listen to Shannon Elizabeth Hardwick’s reading of “Boy in a Field” below…
Shannon Elizabeth Hardwick took this photograph and chose to pair
it with her poem because it embodies “a sense of abandonment and
at the same time, anticipation for things not-yet-lost.”