Red throat,
expel today
the substitute:
the stone. The boy
is back from
underground
today. The boy
has grown.
The undigested
breach in yellow
glory from my
mouth. Then blast
me nine days’
anvil flight away
from wide-
wayed earth.
Colleen O'Brien's poems and short stories have appeared or are forthcoming in The Antioch Review, West Branch, North American Review, Fugue, Poetry Northwest, and other publications. She lives in Kalamazoo, Michigan. 
