sonnet written upon hearing the bodies of nearly a dozen beheaded goats were found alongside the shores of a river outside atlanta

By William Harris

Issue 40 • Fall 2019 • Poetry

2nd Place Poetry

2019 Summer Contest

As poets, we often try to push language out of the confines of margin and form. Some poems
succeed and others still cling to the cliffside. Then, there are some poems that behead themselves and write from that beheading. This poem does just that with language but elegant and serrated. This poem stayed with me for days after reading it and I had no choice but to return to it for several mornings.

– Jake Skeets

i imagine their missing heads searching

for their bodies necks still wet

& smelling of moldy loose change eyes now

dilated oubliettes their chins

first scrape them along every inch

a blistering slouch soon

nothing remains of their beards so their tongues

next push them forward until

their tongues too split like gruesome

two-pronged forks two rusted

tines raking cloven smiles

against unforgiving concrete even as

their pleas shine upward into starlight

starlight that burns all tomorrows’ mornings

after ocean vuong

William Harris

After studying at University of Tennessee-Knoxville and DePaul University, William Harris has spent the past three years as an Adjunct Professor in Memphis, Tennessee with his girlfriend, child, and their five cats. He has previously been published in Canyon Voices and Poetry Salzburg Review. He often fantasize about being a centaur, especially in traffic.