Small Geometries
by
Kathryn Bratt-Pfotenhauer
Kathryn Bratt-Pfotenhauer is the author of the collection Bad Animal (Riot in Your Throat, 2023) and the chapbook Small Geometries (Ethel, 2023.) The recipient of a Pushcart Prize, their work has been published or is forthcoming in The Missouri Review, The Adroit Journal, Crazyhorse, Poet Lore, Beloit Poetry Journal, and others. They attend Syracuse University’s MFA program and serve as Director of Development & Publicity at BOA Editions.
from Small Geometries
Cento with Heartache
“What’s most heartbreaking
is the rib piercing this lung. That I’m
as breathless as this
over nothing.”
—Olena Kalytiak Davis
Of this sweet, tender feeling, I was wrong.
There. That’s the hard part. I wanted.
There. I love you, I love you
into an octave only blood can decipher.
Let me call the scene an insurrection.
Let’s call you mirage.
I am so poor before you. A grackle,
the morning light and light at the end
of the implements---steam
cathedral. In anger, as in desire, it was
a puncture, a black and wicked door,
but it made my heart a safe place for music.
Not out of necessity, but of abundance.
My apologies to necessity if I’m mistaken after all.
I’ve forgotten, nearly, what I’ve meant
and now you say you love me and I stand
even our cruelty towards one another
because we know distance too well,
my misfortune on a leash made of gold
like a question we keep asking each other.
