Kenzie Allen, author of Cloud Missives (Tin House, 2024), is a first-generation descendant of the Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin. She received her PhD in English and creative writing from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and an MFA in poetry from the Helen Zell Writers’ Program at the University of Michigan. A recipient of the inaugural James Welch Prize for Indigenous Poets, she is an assistant professor of English at York University.

Love Song to the Man Announcing Powwows and Rodeos

by Kenzie Allen

How your voice over salted flanks
licks tender, and when you say young ones,
our future, hitches left like making room,
and when you name the horses booms low,
storms a kick-up moan, chases them down,

People on couch
To continue reading please sign in.
Join for free
Already a reader? Sign In