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Livestock

  1. Order sold
  2. on the auction block.
  3. Cattle as collateral,
  4. holy fowl
  5. by the share,
  6. hogs
  7. and hens,
  8. and sorrel mares,
  9. howling dogs,
  10. sheep
  11. we keep kept,
  12. we shepherd the words
  13. chattel, dominion, value,
  14. fair sex.
  15. And the prairie wives—
  16. ice-flecked, blonde bonnets,
  17. cold bellies—
  18. lie
  19. on the precipice of sleep,
  20. while their
  21. wolven correlatives
  22. prowl
  23. the wilderness
  24. with child.
About the Author

Matthew Klane is co-editor and founder of Flim Forum Press. His new book is B_____ Meditations (Stockport Flats, 2008) and his chapbooks include Sorrow Songs, Friend Delighting the Eloquent, and The Associated Press. Also see: The Meister-Reich Experiments, a sprawling hypertext, online at www.housepress.org. Other work can be found at Open Letters Monthly, Otoliths, and word for/word. He currently lives and writes in Albany, NY.