PASTORAL

michelle gottschlich

Audio: Michelle Gottschlich reads.

In place of
                  this place now
just the day done
and a farm gentled by darkness
                  Out back I
found a ditch to bury the wretch
                  Come, lay
beside the shepherds wrestling
                  and this bright fire I built with
my bare hands. Tell me when it’s over my God
                                     my God

Michelle Gottschlich is a Poe/Faulkner Fellow and MFA Candidate in Creative Writing at the University of Virginia, where she also teaches poetry.

Originally published June 2020 in poiesis 1.1 by w the trees.