Tragedy by Paula Stacey & Lindsay Stewart

Wherever the earth is crag and scrub,
the goats are there¹, nibbling on the new,
needing hooved others, and, last of all

refusing the slip on the scree
into the heap of the lonely,
the noisy, and the talked down.

In moments of small chaos, I imagine
myself a she-goat, horns down!, and she
stills me, steels me, something like

a sister. We strike a bargain for the
thick coat and cloven feet
I need for the climb,

tune our ears to the primal
chorus and, undeterred by the sheer
drop of rock, we sing our goat song.

It will be formal, and it will be
filthy, like the animals we are,
and like our animal end.

¹ From “Goats” by Eugénio de Andrade, translated from the Portuguese by Atsuro Riley

Paula Stacey is a writer and editor who currently lives in San Diego where she is pursuing an MFA at San Diego State. Her work has appeared in Poetry Northwest, Mid-American Review, Dunes Review, and Pidgeonholes, among other publications.

Lindsay Stewart is from Glen Ellen, California. Her second home is San Diego, where she is currently pursuing a master’s degree in American literature at San Diego State University. Her work has previously been featured in The Alcala Review and BEATS.