girls their tongues by Abigail Zimmer

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From Orange Monkey Publishing:

Russian Grandmother Kills Wolf With Bare Hands & Axe

Left with a bandaged hand and living calf 
which she calls dumb one and my sweet 
stroking between its milk eyes, the woman 
is not surprised to see November fall upon the yard 
snow steaming from an empty body. 

It happened in quiet, rounding a corner 
to spot the familiar crouch and intention 
her father’s face snarling at her years later
how the first blow slid beneath the shoulder blade
how the palm reader said, Do not become red, 

how we dig feet in and hold and who will win? 
She who is called grandmother and neighbor 
on the next farm over, the lost names 
of daughter and malyutka. She who licks away fear
and closes the gate. This wolf like all wolves 
this hand a perfect fist in a field of statues.