The Farmer’s Bride

When I said yes I meant line
from banty to gullet. I meant delay

from gazing at my own face in the mirror.
I said yes.

Every promise the life of flour in the wind.
I think

I loved you.
When I said it I meant

for now. When I said it
I was hiding the bloodied

straw from the sheep.

Tara Mae Mulroy is a graduate of the MFA program in poetry at the University of Memphis and a 2015 recipient of the Tennessee Williams scholarship. Her poems, stories, and essays are published or forthcoming in Third Coast, CutBank, Weave, Waccamaw, and others. Her chapbook, Philomela, was released from dancing girl press in 2014, and she is sending out her first full-length collection, Swallow Tongue. She currently teaches Latin.