Landscape With Goat

Interior. Not grazing, in the aisle,
intent. Its father at the organ.

All the bright pressed leaves
were in the book; as far as scent,

they turned to pages.
It was all well-meant. Someday it

would return.
Not all were salvaged.

Least of all –
it didn’t want to go. It couldn’t

stay. There was a bit of joy,
it sensed, a major key. There was a

curve, a line of sun. Beside the choir.
Oh, vertigo. It fell

so high,
as high as Babel.

Janelle Elyse Kihlstrom's poems and book reviews have appeared in several places including Gargoyle, Arsenic Lobster, Lines+Stars, and the Iowa Review. She has published two chapbooks, Blue Trajectory from Dancing Girl Press and Minor Theodicies from Finishing Line Press. She holds an M.A. in Writing from Johns Hopkins University and in 2009 founded the online journal Melusine, which she edited until 2016. She lives outside Washington, D.C., works as a freelance editor and is a graduate certificate candidate in Disability Studies. She tweets sometimes @jekihlstrom.