Food a luxury
starvation teaches,
he eats like a monk.
I’ve never seen such
legs of bone, close up.
Like leathered ropes of
snakes before the rat,
the scars overlap.
I kneel to listen.
His body preaches.
Kathy O’Fallon‘s poetry and fiction have appeared in over two dozen literary journals, magazines, and anthologies. She is a clinical psychologist and lives with her dog, Happy.
A Quiet Courage 