He takes wine as a child takes milk
and makes a red fox run under the moon.
A few things that comfortācloves,
cinnamon, ginger. Soft fruits
and the plain speech of a tigerās purr.
He has come, like a donkey or a mule,
to this garden believing in fury
to calm and simplify the slaughter
with fatty marrow and gristle.
There is a life that outlives this one
but no scythe to chop the thickets, yet.
Make no mistake: he can cover distance
on the trail of a new scent
but labor and laws are blurred
with strange appetites.
Jona Colsonās poetry collection,Ā Said Through Glass, won the 2018 Jean Feldman Poetry Prize from the Washington Writersā Publishing House. He is also the co-editor ofĀ This Is What America Looks Like: Poetry and Fiction from D.C., Maryland, and VirginiaĀ (2021). His poems have appeared inĀ Ploughshares,Ā TheĀ Southern Review,Ā The Massachusetts ReviewĀ and elsewhere. His translations and interviews can be found inĀ Prairie Schooner,Ā Tupelo Quarterly, andĀ The Writerās Chronicle.Ā Ā He is an associate professor of ESL at Montgomery College in Maryland and lives in Washington, DC.