MY FATHER EXPLAINS

by jamella hagen

your mother and I had goats
that first winter
we lived upstairs in the bedroom
the goats lived downstairs
that’s why there are toothmarks
all over the living room walls

we butchered once a year
afterward I couldn’t eat meat
for weeks but your mother
would run back throw the bleeding livers
into the pan and eat them
you know you were always like
your mother that way
always liked liver