Unfollow the river and burn the wood.
Let sleigh carry the horse for once.

 

Be odd like horses lying down,
their apricot-sized nostrils.

 

Road stripped of necessity,
stay down, grow snake-steering—

 

slither off animal attributes.
If you say lamb, I say hawk,

 

if you say, You act like a hawk,
I put on lamb and preen superior

 

softness. Wet snow for breakfast,
pie for music: they await

 

the final verse, where grandma laps
around the yard, all her old rapes jingling.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RENNIE (RENATA) AMENT’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in Colorado Review, Sixth Finch, Redivider, cream city review, minnesota review, The Journal, DIAGRAM,  and elsewhere. A nominee for the Pushcart Prize and Best New Poets, she has received support from the Millay Colony, the Saltonstall Foundation, the New York State Summer Writers Institute, the Vermont Studio Center and the Center for Book Arts. She lives in Harlem and online at www.rennieament.com