DIVIDE THE HOOF ❋ Sarah Jean Grimm

This work comes from the collection Soft Focus, which was shortlisted for The Metatron Prize for Rising Authors. You can order the published collection here.

What hurts today is the evidence of effort
I brushed my teeth and lined my eyes
Came back to bed to feel mistaken
Some days I am more synthetic than others
I have many moods
They turn in systems
I am in the habit of my own diagonals
But I get that the patterns are medley
I like how even when the sky is ugly
It’s not
Some days I make myself a fatted calf
Chewing cud for your arrival
How pleased am I to have you
Even as you show me the rumper
The splitter
The vat dipper
If I imagine these things are paper and gloss
I can get off on my own lack
My moods are many animals
We’re all lined up at the stockyard
Waiting our turns
Some day I’d like to be
One prime cut of my choicest offering
When you eat an animal
Are you absorbing its life or its death
I’m not sure it makes a difference