Cockatoos are affectionately known in the world of parrot pet owners as love sponges. With a cutthroat squawk, these needy birds will happily soak up their owner’s attention 24/7 if possible. My husband and I started our family with a pair of cockatoos and built them a cage, fitting it into a three-sided space in […]
Kimberly Ann Priest
Kimberly Ann Priest is the author of tether & lung (Texas Review Press), Floralia (Unsolicited Press), and Slaughter the One Bird (Sundress Publications). An assistant professor of first-year writing at Michigan State University, her work has appeared in Beloit Poetry Journal, Copper Nickel, and Birmingham Poetry Review.
The Hunting Knife
Its handle was polished antler, a thick curved blade sheathed in deer hide and tasseled. I lifted it from the bedside drawer and held it reverently. Never used to hunt, it was the tool that gutted an animal. Still it was termed for hunting, as if gutting were an act of the kill. I knew […]
Freshwater Pea Clam Shell
Freshwater Oyster Shell
Freshwater Mollusk Shell 3
Freshwater Mollusk 2
Freshwater Mollusk Shell 1
Namaste
I have thought about the monster—written him dark, sinister, sad. Made his wounds larger than my own, then not visible. Stolen his identity in poems where I suspect myself capable of equitable shame. Equated my injury to the length and breadth of his injury, then after prolonged investigation and the reading of books to search […]