GordonSquareReview
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • Contest
  • Issues
    • Issue 1
    • Issue 2
    • Issue 3
    • Issue 4
    • Issue 5
    • Issue 6
    • Issue 7
    • Issue 8
    • Issue 9
    • Issue 10
Picture
MENTORSHIP RECIPIENT
Mentor Commentary
Ali Black
Recipient Reflection
Anna Girgenti

Passing a Heifer on the Highway

Poetry by ​Anna Girgenti
Because it was hot, even for June in Iowa,
and because I don’t mind the smell of manure 
I rolled down all four windows in my old Jeep
and stepped on the gas to pass a tractor.

I was seventeen and ugly, unsticking one thigh 
from my leather seat when I saw her 
next to me, and she stared me down
for a mile through the slit in her gate,

eyes squinting in the sunlight. A little gold
sprinkled over her nose. And I thought,
maybe I should feel sad for this animal,
maybe I should bust in and let her loose,
 
but then she nodded her pretty caramel chin
and blinked real slow, like she knew something
I didn’t. Like she had seen enough summers
not to care how this one would end.
 
Wind whipped into her crate, rustled her
ear hairs, and I thought, look at us, girl.
Look at what we’ve got–
this slick American road, a black ribbon
 
draped over deep green hills,
nothing but cornfields for miles,
the young stalks bent ankle-high in the wind,
and our hips heavy as loaded pistols–
 
Do we even need to know 
where we’re going?
​
Picture
Anna Girgenti

Anna Girgenti is a Chicago-based writer and artist. Her work has appeared in several journals, including Cider Press Review, Zone 3 Literary Journal, and Barnstorm Journal. The University of Iowa published her first chapbook, "Asking for Directions," in May 2018. 


GORDON SQUARE REVIEW

Home
About
Submit
Contest
Picture
 COPYRIGHT 2017. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Picture
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • Contest
  • Issues
    • Issue 1
    • Issue 2
    • Issue 3
    • Issue 4
    • Issue 5
    • Issue 6
    • Issue 7
    • Issue 8
    • Issue 9
    • Issue 10