You had a plan for how this would go when you left home. Longing for a thing different than how it was. Maybe a career or a husband. Maybe the perfect sofa because you wanted to rest, blanket around your feet and a tortoise-shell cat like the one when you were a kid, lounging … Read more
The rhythm of hooves over even soft ground, we’ve lost time out together rocked safe in the saddle like breeze through the trees, toward a bottom-heavy sun falling hard to the west. We’ve wandered too far, dirt-worn and words gone, but still warmed in his stride. Just when I pause, not sure of the … Read more
Stomping in the back porch to knock the dirt off my boots, there’s too much wind to work outside on this gray day, clouds hurrying in from the north. I make tea thinking you might be having some about now. Mine has little flavor and the color is wrong. Picking up a book, I … Read more
Black eyes sunk deep in her skull, certain she knows what will come next. The trail of scars on her legs read like an ancient cave painting of where she’s been and what has followed her here, her ribs braced against inescapable shadows, her breath shallow in fear she might become visible. With no … Read more
Leaning on the gate. Checking water tanks at dusk, one last glance at the herd before heading in. I feel his eyes soft on me, from the far side of the pen, his muzzle deep in hay. Awe, my involuntary response to his beauty. Under my breath, I barely murmur the tall gray’s name … Read more
He repeats it all again, a little slower and louder each time, enunciating as if she cannot hear. Certain she must be confused. If he explained to her in simpler terms, she would surely acquiesce, change her answer to be compliant to his reason; her lips would soften, docile with relief. Instead, she presents … Read more
Both horsewomen would remember this moment. A blustering wind, not cold, but bitter. Misty clouds settled the dust. A gelding stood between them, aged beyond the math of his years. Not quite thin but not strong either. Looming with stilted tension as if uncomfortable in ill-fitting clothes. Was it his arthritis? The chronic hoof … Read more
To feel the red soil, fine dust to pea gravel, with each toe through the sole of my shoe. To feel held by the earth, rooted and dear. Soften one knee with deliberate balance, shift weight gradually to the other foot and then sway back, to feel the hip roll follow the first to … Read more
Save your pity. It means nothing. She’s a big mare, broad chest and straight legs, her coat the color of soil that could grow rose gold, imperial topaz, and chocolate. She talks in all directions at once, not that she cares, with her ears shouting orders and her body dwarfed by her ageless spirit … Read more
No more lingering in the melon-colored dusk, grazing late to the barn. The pasture is finished, even the weeds only skeletons. Overnight, the horses prefer barn-stored hay in the windbreak of a south-facing barn. The light drops fast, blood-splatter leaves in a green hedge. Pried from my hand what I hold dear, instead wrapping … Read more