Braying

Richie Hofmann Click to read more...

Richie Hofmann has recently received an Academy of American Poets Prize and an AWP Intro Journal Award. His work has appeared in The Missouri Review, The Southern Review, The Antioch Review and The New Criterion. He is currently pursuing an MFA at Johns Hopkins University.

Richie Hofmann – Braying
This is the time of day we hear them coming back,
when the first sunlight drops to the field
like an animal being born, slick and shivering
where it falls.  Their hooves grind against the earth,
wheat pounded in a mortar
with a pestle, freed from its husks and impurities.
What wickedness clings to me, it sticks
to the last.  I will keep my mouth with a bridle.

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