Aug 17

Hunter Gatherer / Get Back Out There

by Ellyn Lichvar

Hunter Gatherer

Little eggs fell from the nest. Wolf heart
stole up and got them. Hunter hunting
in the hard dark. I come dragging back
with hard teeth. Someone has to.
Lay it on his pillow for when he wakes.
Like everything else, turnip full of blood,
boy so smart he slaps himself stupid.
He is a dark pool, cold as the lake but
not as still. Favorite of the family,
we all have one. I wanted to be his,
and yours, and his—forgot what my
name was. So back out I go, lapping up
the opal top of the lake, wash out truths
still dry on my tongue. Where were you
all those nights? I wanted to make
everything so still, everyone so full.
The water and the woods just laughed.

 

Get Back Out There

Talk about boys
like fish. One
slipped in, slipped
out, big, small,
one that got away.
Say his name.
Think his face.
Push, push
that one out,
think of another’s
face like you did
when he went in.
Next one in line,
same thing. Boy
goes out, men come
in. How many
will there be?
Drink, drink
like a . . . it won’t
make it any better,
won’t make a spine
stiffer. Throw
one back; drop
one in the bucket.
Make your line
tight. Sun up,
down, make sure
it is quiet. The dusk
and the damp.

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Ellyn Lichvar is the managing editor of The Louisville Review and is on the staff of Spalding University’s low-residency MFA in Writing program. She was recently awarded an artist enrichment grant from the Kentucky Foundation for Women and her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in DIAGRAM, BOAAT, The Journal, The Minnesota Review, Whiskey Island, Typo, and others.

 

Art: “Early Morning, Troposphere” by Michele Kishita

Michele Kishita is a Philadelphia-based artist and Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of the Arts. Kishita’s paintings are in several private/corporate collections and shown extensively on the East Coast, as well as exhibited internationally at the Sharjah Art Museum in the United Arab Emirates. Kishita received both her BFA and MFA in painting from the University of the Arts and is represented by The Drawing Room Gallery. Her work is available online at www.michelekishita.com