A Gift Horse

By TIMOTHY LIU

Her hands kept on
working their way

into my pants even

after the wedding
toast—the evening

merely an excuse

for a gift horse
crashing through

the stables of a barn

a midget had set
on fire, my mother

clothed in nothing

but safety matches
struck on her teeth

as she colored in

my moon with pieces
of broken chalk—

 

[Purchase Issue 12 here.]

Timothy Liu’s most recent book of poems is Don’t Go Back to Sleep. He met his husband-to-be while sprawled out drunk on Dickinson’s grave more than two decades back. And that has made all the difference.

 

A Gift Horse

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