New Poetry by Meggie Royer

Barn Raising

At night, Father pacing around the barn beneath the moon,

pitcher of gin in left hand; we couldn’t afford glasses.

Visitors were never prepared for how the calves

screamed in their stalls at dawn,

bloodcalls hanging in the air like sails

til we let them roam the pasture.

Inside my bedroom, a drawer

full of doorknobs.

After the “accident” Mother took them away

to the landfill; there didn’t need to be more reminders

of how I was unlocked.

Father just said the usual things, if he ever got his hands on you

he would sink you or leave you with a broken jaw,

left it at that, drinking midnight til sunrise

while all the animals moaned.

- Meggie Royer 2015

Meggie Royer is a writer and photographer from the Midwest who is currently majoring in Psychology at Macalester College. Her poems have previously appeared in Words Dance Magazine, The Harpoon Review, Melancholy Hyperbole, and more. She has won national medals for her poetry and a writing portfolio in the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, and was the Macalester Honorable Mention recipient of the 2015 Academy of American Poets Student Poetry Prize