What Rough Beast | Poem for May 8, 2019

Katie Hartsock
On His Beauty

His hair smells like a meadow nobody owns

His seed-sized fingernails, so sharp
Already, leave scratch marks on my chest
Spelling out the name he had before
I delivered him into time

His eyes predict every color of the future except theirs

I have seen the shadow of a sparrow fly
Over his head asleep in the afternoon
So I have seen the world

I nurse him through the night and at dawn
I eat potato chips

Katie Hartsock is the author of Bed of Impatiens (Able Muse Press, 2016), a finalist for the 2017 Ohioana Award in poetry. Her work has appeared in Beloit Poetry JournalEcotoneExchangesMassachusetts ReviewMichigan Quarterly ReviewSouthwest Review, and The Wallace Stevens Journal, among others. She holds a MFA in poetry from the University of Michigan, and a PhD in Comparative Literary Studies from Northwestern University. She is an assistant professor of English at Oakland University in Michigan.

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