Anita Olivia Koester
Horizon with Origami Swans
A wild-haired girl, the classics ripped to shreds, a stretch
of beach riddled with sea shells, ancient promises,
a thankless horizon swallows up all the rotting ships
painted with masculine names, goodbye Odysseus, goodbye.
She folded up the centuries inside those origami swans
which were thirsty as afterschool children drawing
sidewalk rainbows out in the sun, while their mothers
touched what was still personal between their legs,
periodically they glanced out the window for danger,
thirsty with concentration, her swans ignorant
of what they were made of, still puffed up like sails
with that rumor that my rainbow will be so long
and glorious that at the end of it a little man
will have a pot of gold, forget that he's miserly,
that he enslaved us and raped us,
shot our heads full of holes.
Bio
Anita Olivia Koester is a Chicago poet. She is the author of the chapbooks Marco Polo (Hermeneutic Chaos Press) and Year of the Dogs (Back to Print). Her poetry is published or forthcoming in Vinyl, Tahoma Literary Review, CALYX Journal, Stirring and elsewhere. Her poems have been nominated for Best New Poets and a Pushcart Prize, and won the Jo-Anne Hirshfield Memorial Poetry Award. She is also the recipient of the Bread Loaf Returning Contributors Award and her writing has been supported by Vermont Studio Center, Art Farm, and SAFTA. Visit her online at– www.anitaoliviakoester.com