Danielle Pieratti
Malediction
- An arrow lodged under
- my eyelid. I cannot ignore
- an arrow.
- Nor can I forget the winter
- snake that wound itself
- around my neck.
- Or the space underneath
- my right shoulder blade,
- where a farmer drags
- a rake through his hay.
- In the tall grass
- along the side, a doe
- has bid her fawn to lie
- and wait.
- The fawn’s so good
- and still that she won’t
- move, even as
- a tractor
- runs her over.
- Now you know.
- Inside my body
- the spotted child
- is sleeping.