by Angela Hoffman

Donkeys bare a cross;
one line formed across their shoulder blades
another down the middle of their backs.
The lighter the hair, the more visible.

In our dark times we need a source of light 
to transform the beast of burden, the heavy weight
that grows cumulative, exponential each day
into a load we rejoice in carrying. 

My prayer is that I am blessed with both the necessary
and beautiful. 
I want to be given a shovel, a sifter, the hard truths
a wind that will winnow the chaff away 
a full moon, a cleansing rain, a rose quartz dawn 
a new day. 

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Angela Hoffman’s poetry collections include Resurrection Lily (Kelsay Books, 2022) and Olly Olly Oxen Free (forthcoming, Kelsay Books, 2023). She placed third in the WFOP Kay Saunders Memorial Emerging Poet, 2022. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Solitary Plover, Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets’ Museletter and Calendar, Agape Review, Verse-Virtual, Visual Verse, Your Daily Poem, Writing In A Woman’s Voice, Moss Piglet, Amethyst Review, Orchards Poetry Journal, POETiCA REViEW, Wilda Morris’s Poetry Challenge, and Lothlorien Poetry Journal. She has written a poem a day since the start of the pandemic. Angela lives in rural Wisconsin. 

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