April 2024 Web Feature by Denise Hopkins
Denise Bickford Hopkins (They/Theirs) is a queer poet originally from mid-coast Maine. They hold their BA in English & Anthropology from the University of Maine and their MFA in Creative Writing from Boise State University. Their work has appeared in Foglifter, Baest, Oroboro, and Stolen Island, among others. You can find their chapbook, Repka, at Dancing Girl Press. Denise currently lives in Pullman, Washington with their husband, Miles.
This piece was originally featured in our Fall 2023 issue and chosen as a web feature for April 2024.
Road Runner
Known as snake killer by snake killers
— it was
only when we weren’t looking
that you appeared to us —
Just outside the refuge
a complication of feathers
weaving through thornscrub
your omen-sopped eye, turned &
almost knowing, a warning —
later, my bare ankle dangling wildly out into the hot
waiting venom of the night
after you left
after you left
El Portal Literary Journal 