In the one for self-awareness
A man beheads a chicken
Beneath a crescent moon.
Shooting stars twist and turn.
In the background, a figure
Stands hunched over a well.
Two men hang from Joshua trees
On both sides of a horizon
For your indecision.
A jackal and lamb
Watch a sun rise and set.
A woman carries loaves
Of bread from a field
Where a man is scything wheat;
Eyes peek from a dark wood
To a boy flying a kite
Blindfolded.
For self-growth, a farmer plants seed
Among golden furrows
As his wife drowns in the creek
Where she fetched water
For their kitten.
In a room lit by a naked bulb,
A young poet
Stares at a jigsaw puzzle
Of words scattered before him
While shadows
Loom over his shoulders.
Native to Missouri, Nicholas Kriefall’s first collection of poems, Attic Pieces, was published in 2014 by Unsolicited Press. His work has appeared in Barrow Street, The Conium Review, Poetry Quarterly, Grey Sparrow Journal, The Spoon River Poetry Review, Writing Tomorrow, The Ampersand Review, Enizagam, The Healing Muse, and is forthcoming in Evening Street Review and Concho River Review.
