an animal meant

an animal meant to have two horns
only has one a sack of cloth rough
a sudden collapse as if ragged brown
and canvas a hiding a hide camouflaged
large and ungainly a blunt animal
in its lungs and dry skin






If at the point where you become immersed in the thing
there’s no mind and if no mind, what is necessary about
belief, if god is an opening, if god is a divine withdrawal

—Carol Ciavonne

Carol Ciavonne’s poems have appeared in Boomerang, Denver Quarterly, The Journal, Pleiades, and elsewhere. She teaches at Santa Rosa Junior College.

Originally published in the summer 2004 issue of Boston Review.