Two Poems by Kelly Grace Thomas

Wolves Do Not Cover their Dead

Every time you kill a wolf // three more come back // hungrier // hiding memory // night // a
drum I beat // paw stalk for bison and breath // no difference between hunted // haunted //
hunger // deep as forest // circles prey // divide place into mouthfuls // I’ve starved three moons
// without grudge // my wolf heart folded // pulped with power // wintered into a wait // so gray
they call me landscape// tongue pinked with revenge // the past sharpened these teeth // I have no
more reasons to die // I return// and choke the river // laugh at the last hunter’s wake // and when
I meet the flesh // of your guilt // do not apologize for slaughter // do not beg to evergreens //
your eyes will open // hands too slow // your throat necklaced by my jaw// after I’m done // I will
not cover you // blood reaching across snow // a slurred hollow // warn the scavengers // she has
come home

How the Body is Passed Down

My mother unzips the body
she hid herself in. Passes
it down. The dress
of diplomacy tailored
too tight. A red indentation
of buttons pressed hard
as childhood. She was still
hungry. Her body, royal
with fridge glow
learned that loneliness
eats with its hands.
She whispered I’m so sorry
and handed me her
shame.
My body has always been
a window: I cannot
throw myself from.
Quickly named it
stranger.
Hips first. Breasts.
Then mouth.
Now: The clothes don’t fit.
Like my mother.
My cabinets are stocked
with grief. I try to take
the smallest bites.
The hurt never ripe
enough to pick.
I tried to bury my history
still nothing blooms.
And now I know
a body can haunt
itself. Be a fear
no one else believes in.
It is the ghost
that only says my
name.

Most mornings I write
the word forgiveness in the fog
of the mirror. I’m not sure
whose reflection it’s for
mine or my mother’s
I can never
stand to look.

Kelly Grace Thomas is the winner of the 2017 Neil Postman Award for Metaphor from Rattle
and a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee. Kelly’s poems have appeared or are forthcoming in:
Tinderbox, Nashville Review, Sixth Finch, Muzzle, PANK and more. Kelly is the Manager of
Education for Get Lit-Words Ignite. www.kellygracethomas.com