SUBSERVIENT

I am drawn from your rib.
God plucked me
from your chest,
could thrust me in again.
Since we are dust, love,
tell me what sort of dust
to be. Shall I settle on you, or
shall you breathe me in and later
cough me up, wiping me from
your wet lips, from the brow
that sweats for its bread?

GOOD ANIMAL

I was your good animal,
your tiger eye. You were my

one ruling
roar. I was your

jungle smut but far
more, a like-minded
beast.

Come palm come fern come vine
we said, come green

to greater green, come enflesh

our feast. So fast! I was your
good animal, not best. Not

first, or last.

Haley Hodges received her MFA from Seattle Pacific University in 2025. She holds additional qualifications from Hope College, Shenandoah Conservatory, and Oxford University. Her work has been featured in Cassandra Voices, Ekstasis Magazine, t'ART, Reformed Journal and elsewhere. Her debut book of poems, Eros Rex, is forthcoming from Orison Books in 2026.