The Time We Killed a Rabbit

My little brother tossed a rock into a wheat field,
we stared, in cavernous quiet, unleashed confused shrugs

into suddenly-honey-thick air, we paired back up, on our bikes.
Shedding, like old snakeskin, worry over having taken her life.

Years later, I can still feel the staccato of her twitches,
as those first raindrops fell—

as we left her on newly wet dirt—asking the sky to answer her.
Also, to be careful, as if holding a soap bubble, not to give us away.

***

Someone to Share the Burden

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Elli Samuels is a poet living in Texas. Her writing has appeared in anthologies and journals such as Wingless Dreamer, Maudlin House, Pif Magazine, and Bones. She is a cookbook author (2014), a yogi, a runner, and is never without passion for gorilla watching, red ranunculus, or a stellar cup of coffee.