{"id":3521,"date":"2022-03-31T13:43:01","date_gmt":"2022-03-31T20:43:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/?p=3521"},"modified":"2024-12-11T12:37:20","modified_gmt":"2024-12-11T20:37:20","slug":"two-poems-by-annah-browning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/two-poems-by-annah-browning\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Poems by Annah Browning"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n\n
\"77\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Found in\u00a0Willow Springs 77<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back to Author Profile<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

\n\n

Two Poems by Annah Browning<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

WITCH DOCTRINE<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The old ones say to draw<\/p>\n\n\n\n

your broom across<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

the step, then pull the latch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the snow’s arrival,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

witch doctrine says, you bring<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the dogs in. No howlers<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

left alone. The gray muzzled<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and the slow-cancered, their<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

heavy bellies wander home, and<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the skinny ones, too, those<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

you feed dark blood of chickens-<\/p>\n\n\n\n

a canine wine. But remember,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

daughter: there are nights you’ll have<\/p>\n\n\n\n

to walk out alone. Know<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

there’s nothing so bad about<\/p>\n\n\n\n

a cold wind reaching<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

through your shirt to your<\/p>\n\n\n\n

chest, the strong<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

contraction of your stomach-<\/p>\n\n\n\n

it says, keep <\/em>walking<\/em>. <\/em>A long<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

winter is ahead, and you’ll study it<\/p>\n\n\n\n

like a lover. You’ll learn<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

its white sides and its gray<\/p>\n\n\n\n

sides, you’ll learn branches’ pop<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

and crack, their glassy reflections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And when one whips<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

your cheek like a hot blade, you’ll<\/p>\n\n\n\n

thank it. You’ll take<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

another branch for the fire,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and you will make it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

DEAR GHOST<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I am not good at telling
if you are real. Do me
the favor of existing, please. Press your face
into the burn of the toast,
or clearly film the bathroom mirror. I would love
to call you ghost, or house\u00ad
mate, or even house- is that you in the pipes,
whistle-buddy? I don’t
know. I drink my coffee black as hair. When I
come inside, I cradle
the newspaper like a child, a gray baby full of new
bad words. Did I say it
out loud, this bit about the eye cancer that buries
itself deep inside the rods
and cones? A color- cancer. I think you like
things faded. I think you
love an oatmeal, a wet sock, the salt line on
a boot. Where the world
licks us, passing by.<\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":25234,"featured_media":574,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wpo365_audiences":[],"wpo365_private":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3521"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25234"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3521"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37602,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3521\/revisions\/37602"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}