Ariana Turiansky: Voice Message # 2
Voice Message # 2
You’ve stayed back,
or I’ve gone on.
There’s hay and dust
in the air, sheep flock in
the shadows. I tear apart
an ear of corn, hope
you’ll notice my bare arms,
hear me laughing and
close the space or say
anything. Hum for the horse
in the pen with a wound
bloom under his chin—
blowing air on my forehead—
my horse / not my horse.
Mountains far out are
cut from black construction
paper. The flock at night
moves lithe and half-
way there and I don’t
need to see everything—
the shadows
at the edge of
a field, waving.
Ariana Turiansky graduated from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas with an MFA in poetry. Her work has appeared in Leveler, ILK Journal, Likewise Folio, and elsewhere. She currently lives and writes in Las Vegas.