Just Past the Dead End Road

danger danger flashing floodlights
laying bare my red hawk mind
extracting talons from the skin
of a mangled rabbit or dead horse what
does it matter you stay either way
to watch me tear at the flesh and not cry once no
you won’t see me weep this time no
you don’t own me anymore no
not in the boneyard not in the moonhouse
not in the field where i kill and oh do i
kill     yes    i    do

Kate Wylie (she/they) is a poetry MFA candidate at Pacific University and 2018 Webster University alum. Wylie reads fiction for The New Southern Fugitives, regularly contributes to the Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome society magazine Loose Connections, and has previously published or forthcoming work in Canary, Sport Literate, The 2River View, Sublunary Review, and Visitant.