Félix Thiollier, Lady and Her Horse on a Snowy Day (1899)
CONTRAPASSO
I gorged myself on four lilies
to absorb a lesson
coincidence should spare crazy people
The rise and fall of the stay at home girlfriend
calling be good to a chorus that says be bad back
How could anything be so soulful
I was the wolf with the drooling tongue
desperate to hunt something and drop it on your doorstep
undertaking a wish as a device
dancing at the threshold
coincidence should have spared me
dignityless like a deer at the pool
my father is just a crazy girl
a product of the year of Texas
an insane woman dressed in deadman’s clothing
coincidence is a bad host
canary in a mine, blonde in a mustang
the underside of an iceberg
it is supposed to be fun
there is neutrality in miracles
days when foundation won’t blend
I desire to be buried under a hard heavy stone
and am learning that orchids are parasites that devour their host plant
Such is life
PHANTOM LIMB
I reach you on a wax phone
flip side of desert moon
I want to say something about the wind but instead
I’ll say this poem should feel like being dragged through sand
I want to lap in the palm of your hand
I want you to beg like dogs
I want inside your ear
as country collapses
and wonder how many times
could I wrap around your wrist
before you taste
what I want
so, write my name while I watch
through the mirror as I hold the rope
I see a horse and feel nothing
then I see you
Carson Jordan is a woman on the mountain. She is the teacher and facilitator of MIND PALACE POETRY and the Poet in Residence at the Ruth Stone House. Her chapbook GOOD FOR HER was published with Dirt Child Press in 2022. You can find her work in Bruiser Mag, The Quarterless Review, Peach Mag, Noir Sauna, and shortie mag.
High Horse 