Han VanderHart
Han VanderHart is a queer writer living in Durham, North Carolina. Their manuscript Larks (Ohio University Press, 2025) won the 2024 Hollis Summers Poetry Prize, judged by Chanda Feldman. Han is also the author of the poetry collection What Pecan Light (Bull City Press, 2021). They have poetry and essays published in Kenyon Review, The American Poetry Review, The Rumpus, AGNI, and elsewhere. Han hosts Of Poetry Podcast and co-edits the poetry press River River Books.
Like a Horse Running at the Gate
I am penned with desire; enclosed;
corralled. Running a circuit past the
exit and entrance. Let’s leave our clothes
on this time. Let’s kiss at the throat,
behind the ear. Your wrists and hands.
You don’t yet know how I can kiss the
space between your fingers, where I
can put my tongue. You said I bruised
your sides with my hands. This time
I’ll be gentle—less like a stallion, more
like a mare. The gate will not be broken.
We can keep to the spring grass. Press
our flanks into the earth. Animal with
animal. Mouth and nipping mouth.
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Image by Ximena Mora from Pexels
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