Heart-Foal | Lily Holloway

Today a self  that  burns  to  look  at  ditched roadside
[not sure abandonment is self-flagellation or survival]
broke            open           and           spiraled           out
another                      junked                      failure-self:
(1) baby girl oh oh sweet baby girl
(2) lover of tiny objects
(3) spinning zoetrope of horse
(4) site of spontaneous ricochet
(5) seeker of true touch
(6) born mistaker
(7) naïve object of tiny love
(8) hurt hurter hurtling hurts hurtful herd hurtfoul
(9) heart-foal all crunkled at the bottom of the well
(10)      licker of the cattle iron
(11)               &
(12)                        &
(13)                                and there are no innocents
(14)                                            and also tomorrow’s and then

Lily Holloway is a writer and powerlifting enthusiast from Aotearoa. They are published or forthcoming in various places including: Black Warrior Review, Best New Zealand Poems, Peach Mag, Hobart After Dark, and Out Here: An Anthology of Takatāpui and LGBTQIA+ New Zealand Writers. Their first chapbook was published in 2021 as a part of Auckland University Press’ AUP New Poets 8. Find them on Twitter and Instagram @milfs4minecraft.