Approaching the Gate
Lynette Reini-Grandell
Peel back the feathers, peel back the fur.
The pale, protective skin— peel that away too.
Pull apart anything that covers,
scrape away whatever doesn’t fit.
Let light stream in at the speed of blood,
slice past cornea, sclera, iris, retina.
Anything to fell the green-leaved past
and pave a roadway,
anything to get to the inside,
anything to plow this ground under.
The pale, protective skin— peel that away too.
Pull apart anything that covers,
scrape away whatever doesn’t fit.
Let light stream in at the speed of blood,
slice past cornea, sclera, iris, retina.
Anything to fell the green-leaved past
and pave a roadway,
anything to get to the inside,
anything to plow this ground under.
Listen to Lynette read the poem here:
Working notes
Indirectly, this is another horse-inspired poem. A gate can be dangerous if a horse gets spooked and tries to run through, trampling the person in the opening. I attended a literary panel where an editor challenged the audience to write poems about the trauma in our lives. I think he was encouraging us to be more emotionally honest. But the challenge was difficult to hear: I was dealing with an overwhelming situation and keeping things compartmentalized so I could do my job and everything else in life. If I opened up and really communicated how I felt, I was afraid I would go into a screaming, crying rage, with no end in sight. This poem contemplates the risk of going deeper.
About the author
Lynette Reini-Grandell is a Pushcart-nominated writer based in Minneapolis whose work has appeared in It’s Animal but Merciful, MNArtists.org, Poetry Motel, The River Muse, and Evergreen Chronicles. Her poetry is part of an art installation in room 5D of the Carleton Arms Hotel in Manhattan. In Minneapolis, she performs regularly with the Bosso Poetry Company, a subsidiary of Bosso Enterprises, theoretically based in Big Lever, Wyoming.