• Omnivore

    Vievee Francis

    Spring 2022

    Todos saben que vivo, que mastico . . .

    Everyone knows that I am alive, that I chew . . .
    —Vallejo

    Rat—teeth to the wood, hoary masticator—
    of plaster, brick, plastic and bone.

    And you goat—chomping, chomping
    with your mouth full of grass and tin.

    We have no argument. I know
    the heart must bite to beat. I know

    like the young know, everything
    must be tasted. Everything:

    Vievee Francis is the author of The Shared World, which is forthcoming from Northwestern University Press; Forest Primeval, winner of the 2017 Kingsley Tufts Award; Horse in the Dark, winner of the Cave Canem Northwestern University Press Poetry Prize; and Blue-Tail Fly. She is the recipient of the 2021 Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry.

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