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.

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