Horseflies

by Frank William Finney

Meat cutting class.
Lesson of the day:

How to cut a veal flank steak.

My classmates
took it all in stride:

the glassy eyes,
the hindlegs bound,

the sheet of blood
beneath the calf’s head,

flies on the walls,
and drunk in the air.

Blood on the blades
of the ceiling fan.

Outside the room,
the fields smelt green.

Horsetails swished
in the afternoon sun.

Frank William Finney is the author of The Folding of the Wings (Finishing Line Press, 2022). His poems have appeared in Flora Fiction, Freshwater Literary Journal, Metachrosis Literary, and other places. He lives and writes in Massachusetts.