With this poem, I wanted to create a perspective that blurred the line between a separate character and self, fiction and reflection. Drawing upon imagery from the rural northeast, I sought out the parallels within the gritty realities of hunting and that of emotional self-preservation. If we believe something wasn’t in vain, can we rationalize and accept the painful or cruel? 

Daniel Brennan (he/him) is a queer writer from NYC, who spent much his childhood in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Pennsylvania. His work has appeared in Passengers Journal, Last Leaves Magazine, & Sky Island Journal, among others.

T: @dannyjbrennan
I: @dannyjbrennan