"Hunger" by Kelli Russell Agodon

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend September 29, 2017   Hunger   Kelli Russell Agodon

If we never have enough love, we have more than most. We have lost dogs in our neighborhood and wild coyotes, and sometimes we can't tell them apart. Sometimes we don't want to. Once I brought home a coyote and told my lover we had a new pet. Until it ate our chickens. Until it ate our chickens, our ducks, and our cat. Sometimes we make mistakes and call them coincidences. We hold open the door then wonder how the stranger ended up in our home. There is a woman on our block who thinks she is feeding bunnies, but they are large rats without tails. Remember the farmer's wife? Remember the carving knife? We are all trying to change what we fear into something beautiful. But even rats need to eat. Even rats and coyotes and the bones on the trail could be the bones on our plates. I ordered Cornish hen. I ordered duck. Sometimes love hurts. Sometimes the lost dog doesn't want to be found.            Copyright © 2017 Kelli Russell Agodon. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   "During long walks I kept finding fawn bones on my favorite trail. I had also been considering how sometimes when we mean to help, we make things worse, even when we are trying our best. I wanted this poem to live in that gray area." —Kelli Russell Agodon   Kelli Russell Agodon is the author of Hourglass Museum (White Pine Press, 2014). She lives in the Seattle area and is the cofounder of Two Sylvias Press. Poetry by Agodon   Hourglass Museum (White Pine Press, 2014) "Eating the Bones" by Ellen Bass "Left-Handed Sugar" by Jane Hirshfield "Did You See the Sky" by Rachel Jamison Webster Poem-a-Day   If you value Poem-a-Day, please consider a monthly donation or one-time gift to help make it possible. Poem-a-Day is the only digital series publishing new, previously unpublished work by today's poets each weekday morning. The free series, which also features a curated selection of classic poems on weekends, reaches 450,000+ readers daily. Thank you! Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038

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