issue 6
// poetry
Flowers on the Hillside
by Ashley Kirkland
Everything is yours. Take it.
Cut the flowers
on the hillside: yours.
Even my urge to make
this beautiful: yes, yours.
I want to feed every
mouth with the flowers
you’ve cut so we can all taste
what it's like when a home
is lost. You can escape
it all if you just believe
enough or pray enough
or pay enough. Meanwhile,
summer’s last tomato goes
rotten on the counter before
we can eat it. There it sits,
in a circle of its own juice.
We preserve the flowers
in a vase. Here: take this
petal. And, here, this one. We’ll
swallow them all before long.
about the author // Ashley Kirkland
| Ashley Kirkland writes in Ohio where she lives with her husband and sons. Her work can be found in 805 Lit + Art, Cordella Press, Boats Against the Current, The Citron Review, Naugatuck River Review, among others. Her chapbook, BRUISED MOTHER, is available from Boats Against the Current. She is a poetry editor for 3Elements Literary Review. |
Instagram: @lashleykirklandwriter
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