Hali Sofala-Jones

Horsemaning

Some mornings my body goes ahead without me—

washes its hands,            answers email,                  cuts a peach over the sink.

Somewhere

  nearby
my head is making its arrangements:
                Death after drop-off.
                Death before dinner.
                Death because a rib hurt.

The camera believes everything.
This comforts me.

Smile.

Hold still.

The trick is to not         

let the two parts touch.

In the old photographs, the headless look delighted.

There is the body.                                                          There is the head.

                                                                                Here is the peach
                                                                          going brown despite us.

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Hali Sofala-Jones is a Samoan and Southern poet and the author of AFAKASI | HALF-CASTE. Her recent work appears or is forthcoming from the Academy of American Poets, Beloit Poetry Journal, The Rumpus, Redivider, The Missouri Review and elsewhere. She loves Jesus, Gulf-side beaches and being a softball mom. She holds a PhD from the University of Nebraska and an MFA from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and teaches her favorite poems, stories and occasionally video games at Middle Georgia State University. Her greatest personal achievement remains the time Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson liked one of her Facebook comments. Find her on Instagram @sofalajones