Poems

by Natasha Pepperl

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First Grade Autobiography

Everything swarms

of humidity and cockroaches
and mosquitos. I slap my legs

On the men of this family: to their future lovers

These men are West Virginia pickaxe, fluent
in uprooting and the duration of heat
before a harvest. How hands can dance

We all have a heat

We all have a vice we keep circling as house cats hunt / for an opening to squeeze through. Maybe it’s meaty / as a person or thin as a folded letter. Maybe it’s the cigar

Fits and Starts

Maybe that’s why churches are

buildings that block sky—we have yet to beat
out our animal instincts.

APPLAUSE

Natasha Pepperl turns her keen eye towards what she calls "Ceremonies of Family."

— Appalachian Review

In Natasha Pepperl's "Fits and Starts," a series of couplets zooms in from the panorama of the Rockies to the felt experience of personal tragedies, exploring a series of physical and emotional scales.

— The Maynard