“Fight,” Two Poems, Faith Gómez Clark.

Fight

Duck, duck, duck…

you chant your eight-year-old

frame a burden

you drag slowly

around the circle

of school children.

Duck, duck, duck…

I already know

it’s me you want.

The wind shouts

in my ear

as the match

of your hand strikes

the top of my head, Goose!

You think

because you’re bigger

you’re also faster.

You don’t know

that I outrun

my father.

You can’t see this anger

swelling like a fire

inside me.

This blacktop will be

the last thing you see

before you burn.

Welcome to the Locked Unit

He had already decided:

it is not safe

here. Stiff white coats saw

the Death fish skimming

the surface of his eyes,

gasping for air.

They rescued the fish

from drowning in the dark

waters of his body.

But didn’t they know

the Death fish belonged to him

the way grief belongs

to the widow?

Faith Gómez Clark (she/they) earned their MFA in Poetry from Warren Wilson. Their chapbook manuscript Unlock the Body was a semi-finalist in the Iron Horse Literary Review 2023 Chapbook Competition. She has received fellowships from Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and Vermont Studio Center. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Their work can be found or is forthcoming in Salt Hill Journal, Rogue Agent Journal, Huizache Magazine, and elsewhere.