Alicia Wright

I hold
open the


horse’s eye
its lids


lip slick
dirt amulet


finger pry
forceps


opening
wider its


fissure I
rip tunics


history’s blue
buckskin


I object in
monocular


vision hold
pierce light


tear canthus
the horse’s


eye glows
impassive


I form
as opener


held in its
beast gloss


I fasten his
fascination


it pins
me holding


for as
long


as I can
think

Alicia Wright's poetry appears in The Paris Review, jubilat, Peripheries, and Third Coast, among others. She serves as a Visiting Assistant Professor of English at the University of Iowa and is the editor of Annulet.