Kate Bremer

Luminous darkness between rooster calls
Looking into pupil-less goat
eyes, connecting with her nose, the quiver,
the crevice, the device, crevasse, the divine,
Divide. Birdsong. The pottery next door–
Cracked and kilned and built. Stop
And hear the aftermath of death–
Crater of belonging–clotheslines full,
Toys hidden, casinos buzzing. Far away
Donkey speaks, not one of ours.
Forest Service mules have been fired;
Some don’t care about livestock auctions,
Trucks to Mexico, medicines for children,
School lunch or family separation.
River rock is a theme today–
Lay in the sun in the layer of the lairs of water.

Kate Bremer lives in Central Texas and loves to host writing gatherings in nature with her small herd of donkeys and a horse.

This poem appeared in Record of Dissent: Poems of Protest in an Authoritarian Age — Summer 2025, published by The Chaos Section Poetry Project. We’ll be featuring each poem from the collection individually in the weeks ahead. You can read the full collection or download a free PDF of the chapbook here.