saddle falling over gray wagons,
sheltering more hopeful voices
who've moved on from their battles,
abandoning freer ways to be loved
than those i struggle to reckon
and this loose frosty thumb
stirring the unforgiving wind for a ride,
searching for alternatives,
but each zooming steering wheel gripped by the next crouching frame
just throws firecracker automatic winces
at my freezing breath smoke
billowing, fading into the next freezing night
along these salted highways
stripped startled trees give themselves away,
denying fertile orchards,
a life out in the openfields where I could be now,
pushing me onward before frostbitten skies
horses choose the gallop,
streak across unfamiliar fields
not those half-trodden ones,
but facing more frigid nights
alone without our sweltering together,
alone without our breathing intimate air,
I am learning the hard way
horses are surely smarter than beings
11/6/71