KATIE RICHARDS
FALL/WINTER 2020 ISSUE #01 POET
Katie Richards is an MFA candidate at George Mason University. She is the recipient of the 2016 Mark Craver Poetry Award and the 2020 Mary Roberts Rinehart Poetry Award. Her poetry has previously appeared or is forthcoming in the South Dakota Review, DIALOGIST, Valparaiso Poetry Review, and The Inflectionist Review among other places.
GOLDEN HOUR
I will never forget the gasp of you
leaving me, your body against me,
your cord pulsing purple, the pulses
curved like ridges of a praying
mantis belly, the pulsing of a snake
pushing a mouse through its body.
Darling, color of the sun, you
came out purple as a bruise,
eyes shut while quiet the doctor
rubbed you and smacked
you until you whimpered
then screamed.