A Bear with a Severe Case of Mange
BY Elisa Gabbert & Kathleen Rooney
Suddenly the edge seemed much closer,
Astringent fear constricting my throat
So I couldn't shout or even whisper that
Quixotic apology for the hoax I’d been
Unkindly perpetrating all my years.
Adrenaline made my blood a cocktail
That no one would ever order, and then,
Clutching the footprint, I lost my footing.
Having already lost my love of the chase.
Elisa Gabbert is the poetry editor of Absent. Recent work can be found in Colorado Review, Diagram, Pleiades, and Typo. She is the author, most recently, of The French Exit (Birds LLC, 2010). She lives in Boston.
Kathleen Rooney is an editor of Rose Metal Press and the author, most recently, of For You, For You I Am Trilling These Songs (Counterpoint, 2010). She lives in Chicago.
They are the co-authors of Something Really Wonderful (Dancing Girl Press), That Tiny Insane Voluptuousness (Otoliths, 2008), and Don’t ever stay the same; keep changing (Spooky Girlfriend Press, 2009).