Heath Joseph Wooten
[ ]
Sue watches the sun chase a rabbit
across the road. The last strands of summer remain
taut yet. Lately, Sue’s aim
has been rough. Always in the heat,
there’s a breakdown of the nexus
between hunter and hunted. In another life, the light
was less cocksure. Sue thought in that life, her fists
were like peaches. Here, they are simply the stone. She wants to explain:
the needle-certain path of the rabbit
into the woods. The exact shade of red
the moment an arrow
pierces flesh. The exact wedge of sun
that illuminates the wound. The misunderstanding
of the twitching muscles. See—she had meant to hit the heart.
Heath Joseph Wooten (he/him) is an MFA candidate at Northern Michigan University. He is the co-EIC of perhappened mag and reads poems and shorts at Passages North, and his favorite time of day is the end. You can find his work if you look hard enough.
Return to July 2022 Edition
Sue watches the sun chase a rabbit
across the road. The last strands of summer remain
taut yet. Lately, Sue’s aim
has been rough. Always in the heat,
there’s a breakdown of the nexus
between hunter and hunted. In another life, the light
was less cocksure. Sue thought in that life, her fists
were like peaches. Here, they are simply the stone. She wants to explain:
the needle-certain path of the rabbit
into the woods. The exact shade of red
the moment an arrow
pierces flesh. The exact wedge of sun
that illuminates the wound. The misunderstanding
of the twitching muscles. See—she had meant to hit the heart.
Heath Joseph Wooten (he/him) is an MFA candidate at Northern Michigan University. He is the co-EIC of perhappened mag and reads poems and shorts at Passages North, and his favorite time of day is the end. You can find his work if you look hard enough.
Return to July 2022 Edition