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Self-Portrait as a Miniature Donkey

Dew-grass. Groomed. Sing sweet hee-
haw for saltlick treat. If sad, sagged
ears, mossy eyes. If sad, so? Sing.
Be silver, small. Fat velvet muzzle:
be led by. Crowd. Blue ribbons prick.
Best soft. Best good.
Look, it’s smiling. See: teeth.

Only stablehand smell grimy
breath. Only stablehand scraped
by hooked hoof: dodge
the stomp. Hangman’s tail,
dry shit caking, cracked. Stablehand
care. Hose night-filth away.
All gone. Stall open. Day.

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Annie Przypyszny is a poet from Washington, DC pursuing an MFA in Poetry at the University of Maryland. She is an intern at the DC Writers Room and a reader for Bicoastal Review. Her poetry is published or forthcoming in Bear Review, South 85 Journal, Grist, Sugar House Review, Tampa Review, Tupelo Quarterly, Beltway Poetry Quarterly, The Shore Poetry, Soundings East, Poor Yorick, Hellbender Magazine, Midway Journal, and various other journals.