by Katherine Indermaur
The empire aches toward glory
Soldiers suckle their shields’ gleam
Our cities thicken into ruin
In the desert I disciple myself
To ripeness tonight the hard moon
Claws our statues’ throats throats
bright as gulls
::
Katherine Indermaur is the author of I|I (Seneca Review Books, November 2022), winner of the 2022 Deborah Tall Lyric Essay Book Prize, and two chapbooks. She serves as an editor for Sugar House Review and is the winner of the Black Warrior Review 2019 Poetry Contest and the 2018 Academy of American Poets Prize. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Coast|noCoast, Ecotone, Frontier Poetry, Ninth Letter, the Normal School, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA from Colorado State University and lives within sight of the Rocky Mountains.
Image: Juli Kosolapova
Image description: a yellow moon rises over purple mountains.
Psaltery & Lyre 