Sarah Degner Riveros
My gender is more animal than vegetable or mineral, domesticated, wild, created.
a pit bull who doesn’t know indoors from outdoors, who shakes in thunder and hides under porches, who jumps fences and breaks glass doors to cuddle in under quilts, who rides shotgun in the minivan with all her people.
a bathroom cat who meows for more affection, clean water, more food, meows & meows for more and more and more.
a middle-aged Craigslist rescue bunny who sleeps in the weed patch by the compost pile and spends nights holding vigil under a streetlight on the median, who munches on clover and dandelions day and night, greeting the neighbors with softness and trust.
a hen who cackles in the face of danger, who sits in protection over eggs that may never hatch, who races and hobbles and pecks in search of enough while holding the vision for an economy of abundance.
a homing pigeon, who whispers and coos and hovers over the water, over the coop, over the fledglings; who longs for the babies to grow up, who yearns to be far away only long enough to come back home and find them all safe, warm, happy, and well.
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Sarah Degner Riveros (she/her) teaches Spanish and studies Creative Writing at Augsburg University in Minneapolis, Minnesota where she is an MFA candidate in poetry and creative nonfiction. Her work is forthcoming in Vassar Review, Clarion, and Tiger Moth Review, and has appeared recently in Rogue Agent; Sonora Review; Grey Sparrow; Barnstorm Journal; Yes, Poetry; Willawaw; Bearings; Porridge; Murphy Square Quarterly; and Azahares.
