German Shepherd
Anna Laura Reeve
| poetry
The bone of a girlhood wish ivory smooth & shining
That I will always be alone like you
& everyone
Once
I wanted to pierce your solitude & then
Rilke said no Rilke before psychotherapy or anyone
& then I wanted to stand guard over your solitude
I have been chased from the gates, hounded
tooth & the horror of a snarl
& then & then
& then your solitude grew
& it guarded itself the way the shepherd
guards what is his by running into the road
toward me like a bullet on a September morning as I pass
running, running
Winner of the 2022 Adrienne Rich Award for Poetry, Anna Laura Reeve’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in Beloit Poetry Journal, Terrain.org, and others. Her debut collection, Reaching the Shore of the Sea of Fertility, is available from Belle Point Press and elsewhere.