Rhoni Blankenhorn
Gate
A thin fence edges
the perimeter.
Not a concerted effort to uphold a boundary,
but a kind of endeavor.
I walk the whole thing
just to get a feeling.
Nothing could stop me
from barreling through —
a thought that brings me comfort.
I have a dangerous urge to make
and remake the distinction between things.
Like a child. Like a bad dog.
Again and again
I arrive at the latch.
Rhoni Blankenhorn reads “Gate”
Rhoni Blankenhorn is a Filipina American writer. Her debut, Rooms for the Dead and the Not Yet, won the Trio Award and is forthcoming from Trio House Press in July 2025. A Saltonstall fellow, a Sewanee scholar, a Tin House Summer Workshop alum, and a Community of Writers alum, her work can be found or is forthcoming in Narrative, AAWW, Mercury Firs, Honey Literary, Couplet, Beloit, Copper Nickel, Adroit, and elsewhere. She edits poetry at The Brazenhead Review, and serves on the advisory board for the87press.