My Ponies//Autumn Thomas

My feet are wet at graveside committal
awkward and still too lanky
high water dress pants a child
still thinking everything is about me
the celebrant reads 1983 King James
beginning to smudge with the falling
snow big fat flakes ashes in the plot
two fat little ponies come up to the cemetery
chicken wire and cedar post separation
flicking tails with mild interest caked
in mud grinning flaunting a stubbornness
as we look to each other
Old money pennsylvania cigarettes
perfumed into suits and chuck taylors
umbrellas overhead cousin looks uncomfortable
everyones cold and no one knows what
to do heads down praying as a child
these figures were monoliths sophisticated
and full of story almost omniscient family
mythology now they all walk with canes slow
atrophy of fleshy ephemeral bodies
The priest talks about the soul
like there's a little cavity in our chests
a cage for it like a songbird later Macy
tells me if there's a little cage in my chest
they want to live in it chirping I
tell them it's already full bursting
as those fat little ponies kick the walls

Autumn H. Thomas is an emerging writer from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. After graduating with a bachelor’s in English Literature from Hollins University, they spent a year in Arizona working as a professional cowgirl. Since then, she enrolled in Temple University and is an MFA candidate 27’ and teaching assistant. Autumn now lives in Philadelphia practicing the art of noticing. Her debut chapbook "Letters to False Gods" is up for publication in Spring of 2026 under Plan B Press. Their single poems have been published in Skipjack Review, Cleaver Magazine, Belt Review and others.