Judith Skillman
The Rat
Continues to haunt us
not unlike a man with a rope tail
one who left the scaffold
before given a chance to finish
what he started in the ministry
of despair in the country of fascism
in the dream listing to one side
Again the many have bought in
to a regime of Kalashnikovs
the rat sips from these guns
of the state even as it creates
a manifesto of crumbs and hungers
of biblical plagues & ringed posies
& the demise of childhood
A single bite, incisors ever
at the ready white against the void
where the appetites gather to hallucinate
where the wounded bear has no power
over the braying of the donkey
the elephant’s ivories
Judith Skillman is is the author of Premise of Light (Tebot Bach, 2018). Her poems have appeared in Shenandoah, Seneca Review, Cimarron Review, Zyzzyva, and other journals. She is the recipient of grants from Artist Trust and the Academy of American Poets. She is a faculty member at Richard Hugo House in Seattle, Washington.
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