the general’s winter lemons
packed in a munitions crate
tamped shut with square nails

for the conscripted men
to suck in wedges, boots
propped on a rail of snake fence.

When they finish, let them lob
the spent meat and mumped skin
like siege shot. Let them laugh

a boy’s laugh as they try to bull’s-eye
their cuts of sun on the peaceable backs
of those grazing, broad-faced ponies.

Listen:

Author Image

Adam Houle is a PhD candidate at Texas Tech University. His work is forthcoming or has recently appeared in CutBank, Post Road, Cave Wall, and elsewhere.

Photo courtesy Steve Swayne

Erica Wright

Erica Wright is the author of the poetry collections All the Bayou Stories End with Drowned and Instructions for Killing the Jackal. She is the poetry editor at Guernica magazine as well as an editorial board member of Alice James Books. Her latest novel is The Granite Moth: A Novel.