• Maze II

    Richie Hofmann

    Spring 2024

    Horny, half-mad,
                the smell of old flowers
                                      encases

                this man’s room
    like an anonymous
                            tomb—miracle

                            to be alive
    and then to die. In the thick
                of an island thick

    with a history
                            that belongs to
    everyone and no one,

                feral goats shit and mate
                                        and clamber in dust,
                kicking it up.

    Don’t you hate animals?
                                      Don’t you hate
                            being an animal?

                His animal?
                                      Still it feels good
                when the sun comes up

                                and warms the bed
    like the cold surface
               of the ancient ocean.

    Richie Hofmann is the author of two collections of poems, Second Empire and A Hundred Lovers.

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