Kathryn Kirkpatrick is a poet and a professor of English at Appalachian State University. Her poetry focuses on the natural world and the ways humans interact with nature, and the ethical treatment of animals.
Every Secret is a Little Casket When we got to my father’s grave, my mother apologized. Anthills puckered at the seams of the grave. Crabgrass hemmed in the nameplate. It was a flat grave, not high but deep. Another beside it with her name and single date seemed to wait,