Offal
Molly Sutton Kiefer
There, mittens made from thrifted sweaters,
stoppered fingers, felted wrists, breeze lilting
on a February day—sun too bright, snow’s ricochet
and only the heff-heff of breath-crystals against brittle scarf.
At trail’s head, a dead deer, pitted, cave of ribs, emptied,
blank eye. Even the dogs are no longer interested, its body
crisped and stale. Too long I’ve let my consuming blind me,
eye at the center of me, great howl of want, the want
I am petrified to mention—he will only let it be whispered,
doesn't want me to scatter our secret trying, what if it never takes--
and here, bones snap, cheeks are a warm rose,
and we amble down the trail. My husband leans, says, Look--
and there it is, the liver, ancient seat of love and violent emotion--
intact, perfect almost. Great sloppy crow tracks,
bloody glyphics, what is stolen, wrenched. Here I am,
ready to unpack my heart from winter.
There, mittens made from thrifted sweaters,
stoppered fingers, felted wrists, breeze lilting
on a February day—sun too bright, snow’s ricochet
and only the heff-heff of breath-crystals against brittle scarf.
At trail’s head, a dead deer, pitted, cave of ribs, emptied,
blank eye. Even the dogs are no longer interested, its body
crisped and stale. Too long I’ve let my consuming blind me,
eye at the center of me, great howl of want, the want
I am petrified to mention—he will only let it be whispered,
doesn't want me to scatter our secret trying, what if it never takes--
and here, bones snap, cheeks are a warm rose,
and we amble down the trail. My husband leans, says, Look--
and there it is, the liver, ancient seat of love and violent emotion--
intact, perfect almost. Great sloppy crow tracks,
bloody glyphics, what is stolen, wrenched. Here I am,
ready to unpack my heart from winter.
Working notes
This poem comes from a manuscript in circulation with publishers titled Pine on issues of the body and (in)fertility, and the ways in which language can alter an experience.
About the author
Molly Sutton Kiefer’s chapbook The Recent History of Middle Sand Lake won the 2010 Astounding Beauty Ruffian Press Poetry Award. Her work has appeared in Harpur Palate, Women’s Studies Quarterly, Berkeley Poetry Review, Comstock Review, you are here, Gulf Stream, Cold Mountain Review, Wicked Alice, and Permafrost, among others. She received her MFA from the University of Minnesota, serves as poetry editor to Midway Journal, and runs Balancing the Tide: Motherhood and the Arts | An Interview Project. She currently lives in Red Wing with her husband and daughter and is expecting a second child in February. She is at work on a manuscript on (in)fertility. More can be found at mollysuttonkiefer.com
For an updated list of works published in TRIVIA, please see this author's contributor page.
For an updated list of works published in TRIVIA, please see this author's contributor page.