Gabriel Lee’s work has previously appeared in Into the Void Magazine and is forthcoming from Riggwelter Press. He attends the University of Arkansas at Monticello.
The Dove Hunt
it is September and men
with painted faces come
to take the sacrament
of an immaculate morning
the sky looks solid as a sheet
of glass balanced on the pines
clouds condensing from God’s breath
when the first brace appears
the illusion is shattered—
replaced with the image of empty
space disintegrating into feathers
while the doves fall into dogs’ mouths
smoke still whispers in the gun barrels
when the dogs return exultant
the doves twitch their pockmarked
wings in a gesture of resignation
to the Assumption of birdshot
reaping of the naked air until the men
throw the birds over their work worn shoulders
and trudge downhill like setting suns
Missile Hymnal Amulet
Poems by G. F. Boyer
These are poems of survival—especially survival of religious indoctrination. At the same time, these poems celebrate a rich natural world: the physical and sensory world of plants, animals, and insects; the innocence and presence of nature; and even an animism that overpowers Christian fundamentalism and the increasingly revealed indifference of God. Through it all, time, aging, and dark humor provide a strong pulse, saying life will go on with or without us. The title’s missile, hymnal, and amulet represent the three sides of this conundrum, as rage, beauty, and love interweave in these crisp and incisive poems. “That’s how bayonets are made, you say. The wound is triangular and doesn’t heal easily.”
