Mikko Harvey
Two POEMS
There Go Gordon’s Goats
past the house where his marriage ended,
past the guitar unplayed in the basement,
past the farm with orange trees,
past the ash of a dog he put to sleep,
past the son who wears a book for a face,
past the disease we do not talk about,
past the midnight kitchen where he chews
tortilla chips and philosophy,
past the furthest forest he can name,
the goats finally arrive at a clearing
where they are greeted by his mother who has no memory
and scratches their chins and tells them a story
about her son who went to the store to buy milk,
her son who will be back any minute now.
Game
The winner skins
the loser and wears
their skin as a delicate
garment to the annual
gala.
The loser spends
the rest of their skinless
life folding paper
airplanes out of photographs
of the winner.
Mikko Harvey is the author of Unstable Neighbourhood Rabbit (House of Anansi, 2018). His poems appear in places such as DIAGRAM, Field, Iowa Review, and Kenyon Review. He is currently an associate poetry editor for Fairy Tale Review.