You carry a spool
against your empty
body, fill yourself
with straw, & hope
to hatch something
blameless. Nothing
takes hold, so
your insides twist
the straw to gold
thread. You’ll pull
strands out of
your mouth, wind
the spool: small
sun, body loaded
with gold. Enough
for your empty
nest, glittering home
spun of fire.
Stefanie Kirby is the author of Fruitful (Driftwood Press, 2024), winner of the Adrift Chapbook Contest; Remainder, forthcoming from Bull City Press; and Opening, forthcoming from Glass Poetry Press. Her poetry has been included in Best of the Net and Poetry Daily, and appears in West Branch, Pleiades, The Massachusetts Review, The Cincinnati Review, the minnesota review, and elsewhere. She lives along Colorado’s Front Range with her family.
Bluesky: @msstefaniekirby.bsky.social
