I Knew You Were A Good Animal

when I met you—
but the day

has gotten long.
I think about leaving

you. I do. I
regret it,

& I don’t.
It depends.

Of course,
it’s always something

that depends.
A dove

caught in
the lake’s lace

& rioting against
the wave-white.

I don’t know where
you hands went,

I can’t
hear them.

I’ve lost them
in the crowd.

It is not so much that I need you
back as I need to

remember I still can
desire. I keep

solo, so low
to the ground

it becomes
a roof.

I knew you were
a good animal

when gull-flocks
fell like seeds

beside you,
Lake Michigan

roiling black, tucked
into an elbow.

As tempting as it
is to call a name

into the bludgeoned air,
don’t.

I wish I could
find a home in you,

I wish you would
take yourself home.

The Light Appears, It Disappears, It Passes

I saw a bridge become an arm,
gesturing. I saw a foal
fold back inside its mother. I saw
the warehouse where they store streets
after cars pass through them.
I saw an art exhibit
of four mirrors—gray paint
over glass. We arrive
at our reflections as the art.
$10 admission fee. I saw
a painting full of red,
flecked with careful light,
Sadak at the mountain-tilt,
clung to each bone-flinch, each
stone. I saw the white blades
through the windowblinds,
illuminating the skin
in digestive patches. I saw
the moon-lacquered floor open
like a jar. I saw the snake of leather
drop flaccid from between the legs.
I saw the shirt pull itself off the arms.
I saw the absence refuse tautology,
it is not always the same.
I saw my heart fill with smoke.
I saw a woman pull her love
from her chest, smoke-ropes
collapsed in the nose.
I saw the light become
a burgundy glow behind
the road, moving as the slowest
pendulum. Time
not like a carousel but like a hill
down which we roll things.
I saw a day, & then another,
& then another. How is the lake
veiled in dew already?
If I had asked her to marry me,
it would’ve meant nothing.
I am full of too much anger,
too much sad careening.
Would it be enough to apologize
for having no place in the world?
—Here, touch everything.
The softened butter-sun
milked of its pageantry,
light lapsed at desirable angles,
sculptures with eyes like St. Lucy,
ridges of oil, mountain range I have desired
with desire beyond desire.
Small spread of paint
beneath your nail—take it
home with you. It is as lonely
as you could imagine a thing to be.

Gabrielle Grace Hogan is a poet from St. Louis, MO currently living in Austin, TX while she pursues her MFA from the University of Texas at Austin. Her work has been published by the Academy of American Poets, Peach Mag, Kissing Dynamite, Passages North, and more. She is the Poetry Editor of Bat City Review and Co-Editor of You Flower / You Feast, an online anthology inspired by the music of Harry Styles. Her debut chapbook Soft Obliteration is available now from Ghost City Press. Her social media and projects can be found on her website, gabriellegracehogan.com.