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The Failure of the Pony by ​Heather Napualani Hodges

The horse failed the boy






the living room lit up with it


the tang of shit and walls and beige.






The child asleep, and soft, the stomach hanging open,






the cities stirring inside.






The unexpected sag of the thing that married itself to you


all the years back


when you cried for a pony






thinking it a separate species


from all the rest.





Heather Napualani Hodges received her BA in English with a focus in creative writing from Lewis & Clark College, in Portland, Oregon. She is currently pursuing various inertias and attending to the things inside.
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