Christian Paulisich
​​The Bison

In the field, a boy crochets the stars. 

The bison lay parted on the soft grass, a mirror, 
eyes turned to the moon, larger now than in life. 

In the field, my ancestors heave into the soil. 
One holds the bison’s dark curved horn. 

The other, a machete. The boy nuzzles 
his chin in the dark matted fur. 

Did he kill it? In the field? Did it kill him? 
The stars take the stand. 

In the field, God cracks an egg on the world. 
The yolk rises through the thin white film and pierces it.

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Image by Bryce Olsen from Unsplash
Christian Paulisich graduated from Johns Hopkins University, where he worked on The Hopkins Review. He works as a therapist in Northern Maryland, but is originally from the Bay Area, California. He was recently chosen as an honorable mention for the 2024 Gulf Coast Prize for Poetry and a finalist for Frontier Poetry's 2024 Nature & Place Contest, and received a Summer 2024 fellowship from Brooklyn Poets. His work has been published in or is forthcoming from The Southeast Review, Salamander, Frontier, Literary Matters, Crab Orchard Review, Denver Quarterly, and other magazines. He currently reads poetry submissions for Palette Poetry. https://christianpaulisich.wixsite.com/christianpaulisichpo
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