Grace McGovern
Watching Once Upon a Time in the West, I am stuck
on the saloon door. Harmonica swells, bullets drop,
but forget that, watch the corner of the cloth
screen, admire this gesture toward a door.
We can argue the door’s uselessness in the rain,
but there will never be rain. In the cool cinema,
on reddening velvet, I sigh at imagined air on the face,
sweet and clear, a door that is not a door, I dream
of a body like a horse’s, admired and left
to wander, tail swishing as it pleases.
Grace McGovern is an MFA candidate in poetry at Washington University in Saint Louis. Grace’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in Puerto del Sol, West Trade Review, Dunes Review, The Poetry Society of New York’s Milk Press, and others. She lives with her wife and their dog and cat. You can find more of her work at gracemcgovernpoet.com.