by Kara Goughnour
My heart has been a long time spent –
a cased cadaver all veil and veneer.
A cumbersome wreck of lovers in haylofts
who make love over straw.
A cased cadaver all veil and veneer
where Daddy’s got a gun and a brain for war
but they make love over straw
and keep one eye on the dead bolt.
Where Daddy’s got a gun and a brain for war,
and has a fist and a battering ram,
and keeps one eye on the dead bolt,
and solves all troubles with his 45.
Like a fist and a battering ram,
we’re a cumbersome wreck of lovers in haylofts.
All our troubles start with his 45.
My heart has been a long time spent.
Kara Goughnour is a queer writer and documentarian currently unpacked in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She is the 2018 winner of the Gerald Stern Poetry Award and has work published or forthcoming in The Southampton Review, Riggwelter Journal, Terror House Magazine, and others. Follow her on Twitter @kara_goughnour or read her collected and exclusive works at karagoughnour.com.
Art by Art Editor, Michelle Johnsen
Michelle Johnsen (art editor) is a nature and portrait photographer in Lancaster, PA, as well as an amateur herbalist and naturalist. Her work has been featured by It’s Modern Art, Susquehanna Style magazine, Permaculture Activist magazine, EcoWatch.com, EarthFirst! Journal, Lancaster Farm Fresh Cooperative, and used as album art for Grandma Shake!, Anna & Elizabeth, and Liz Fulmer Music. Michelle’s photos have also been stolen by AP, weather.com, The Daily Mail, and Lancaster Newspapers. You can contact her at mjphoto717 [at] gmail.com.