Elisabeth Horan’s most recent poem to appear here was “The Gift of Not Being Me” (February 2018).
After the Wars of Men
By Elisabeth Horan
Risky is my sharpest razor.
clean and smooth-bone skin
Lights up your eyes and
the night—I am not food
But rules should be broken
I am not medicine
But by God I come to heal—
Repeal my fellow human’s
Need and lust; her
avarice and crusted
Over mind and lips
y’all forgot to kiss.
We are the forgotten ones;
the ones in the Ward
There are no rules
about love being sane
About love not being a
reconnaissance mission
To put happiness
back into one’s brains
After the wars of men—
after the wars against us.