Susan Goslee
LIGERTOWN: HERALDIC ATTITUDE

Ligertown
—Idaho, 1995

 Heraldic attitude
—Photograph of lion 9

Goldenrod lines the creek like torches
lighting the road to a garrison. Narrow
banks shortbread-mold the lion’s spine and chest,

but his red-gold mane floats out as Ophelia
model’s hair. Bathtub water was freezing.
One giant paw propped on other. He’s posed

on his side. Some rulers have felt under siege.
Light sheds in clumps till it clogs the camera’s
drain. Viewfinder molts. Colors are legion.

One time, I stared, kneeled to the bulk
bin of circus cookies at Winco. Pale
figures of elephants, tigers, camels

have their tops iced pink or white with royal
blue sprinkles. They don’t make boar, hedgehog, deer
—only balk in the ring. Damp makes tawny lion

dark. Bullet hole must be snug to creek
bottom. The sweet grass, though, ballets
in sleek green, twirls out the frame. Frontiers

don’t trouble pleasure. Ignore what’s at the gates.

Susan Goslee’s poems have appeared in The Summerset Review, Volt, Crab Creek Review, The Southampton Review, West Branch, Permafrost: Online, Juked: Online, and other journals. She teaches at Idaho State University and is poetry editor at Prompt Press.

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