Thrush Poetry Journal
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Mackenzie Kozak
​

once formed
 
he wakes to a forest says     yes
a river is lonely     says     you are
lonely     are you a river
 
says     when the sun warms me i am
warm     warmed
and the mouth like a wrinkle
that bends and bends
 
when arms falling to the ground
clatter
 
trilling     he says     tilling the earth
picking apples     holding
the stray hands of ferns
 
she wanders and upends
the dew     loses her memory
of moving     startled     her limbs
a green tree     lake with its tents
she sees all of it
 
he     no longer large     without
her for the first time     touches
leaves     thinks of gravel     umbrellas
 
extravagantly fall     very clear pebble
jade hat     each sprig is a stain
bulbed white flowers
 
when they go out will there
be a sign     what will they
see     the maker on a roof
waves them on
 
umbrella magnolia     perhaps
in a forest where i began
beginning to breathe
 
don’t you remember the sky
before it was a word     when it was
just a flourish




departure
 
again they enter the garden
for the first time     which is
the last time
 
he carries a bent shovel
she carries a crown of ivy 
 
they dig each other’s graves
to bury themselves     but then
they chew each leaf and flower
 
they tear roots     drag goats by their hooves
 
people say     from somewhere across
the generations     why do this?
 
how could they live elsewhere
knowing their home lay here
perfect and immense     fruit plump
pinched blooms     field of grazing animals
 
how could they lie in their beds
at night     pretending to touch
or reach into a gutted sky
 
when the leaves sway here
in vivid orange
 
when a tree that is not a house
is not silent     when the maker
imagines his hands 




Mackenzie Kozak holds a BA from Wake Forest University and an MFA from UNC-Greensboro. She lives in Asheville, NC where she admires mountains and grocery stores. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Boston Review, Cosmonauts Avenue, jubilat, Prelude, and Sixth Finch. Find her online at mackenziekozak.com



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