These three poems by Emma Johnson-Rivard navigate the roads between the politic, queerness, and defiant survival in a difficult world…
by: Emma Johnson-Rivard
Tomorrow
You dream. You love. You bring
what clarity you can. The day looms.
Time and your trust twine, but your burning questions
hang. Cats twine their tails when they love each other,
they walk together as if trying to become more
than one. This is a good lesson for what’s
next. No one here is solely themselves.
We are all built from an
absorbent clay, our molecules changed
by proximity. We are shaped and we
shape ourselves. No one has to be alone
for the next part.
Hometown
Home and city rise within the boundaries.
Street names once again will provide a
conversation between maps and
time, a balance but no restoration, no
true peace. We can only be proud of our history
if we kill the details. The cumulation would ruin
our dust. Our ghosts live now in bronze. We are
so proud of these names we deny their bones, the
blade struck, the rope strung, we honor God and
country but not our ghosts, not the reckoning. We
come to this late, if we come to it at all. I can never
go back now that I know what I know. I will not
be the last.
Menagerie
The poet suffered after returning, isolated
especially in winter. There was no
peace and calm. The nightmares work her,
they were always about control
shot into brain and blood. Come to find,
she was having a panic attack. Knowing
was a double-edged sword. She was labeled
but she’s becoming stronger now, full of
passionate medicine. It was suggested
she work with animals, a proven path
for those with neurodivergent tendencies,
and her already drawn to horses and
cats, a loner and a lesbian, these things
often combine. Surround yourself, the
medicine says, in books, brine, and
animal notions. No other therapy has worked.
Emma Johnson-Rivard is a midwestern writer of poetry and weird fiction. Her work has appeared in Strange Horizons, Coffin Bell, Moon City Review, and others. She can be found at Bluesky at @blackcattales and at emmajohnson-rivard.com.
